Wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who hasn’t closed the door on his own presidential run, argued that President Trump has proved that not everyone should run for the White House, even if they have the means to.
“I think in a lot of people’s minds, what Trump has proved is that anybody can run for president,” Johnson told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview published Wednesday. “And in a lot of people’s minds, what he’s also proved is that not everybody should run for president. What I’m sensing now is that we have to pivot back to people who have a deep-rooted knowledge of American history and politics and experience in policy and how laws get made. I think that pivot has to happen.”
As for his own political ambitions, Johnson says it’s flattering that people want him to run but he doesn’t have the experience yet.
“People are very excited, and it’s so flattering that they’re excited,” he said. “I think it’s also a function of being very unsatisfied with our current president. But this is a skill set that requires years and years of experience. On a local level, on a state level and then on a national level. I have the utmost respect for our country and that position, and I’m not delusioned in any way to think, ‘Oh, absolutely, if Trump can do it, I can do it, and I’ll see you in 20-whatever, get ready.’ Not at all.”
He has been taking “under-the-radar” meetings with people involved in politics.
“I feel like the best thing I can do now is, give me years. Let me go work and learn.”
In the interview he also revealed he didn’t vote for a presidential candidate in the 2016 election. Johnson previously said he didn’t vote for President Trump or Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“At the time, I just felt like it was either vote for the [candidate] I thought would make a better president than the other, even though I would rather have someone else, or not vote at all. I wrestled back and forth with it. We were on the set of Jumanji in Hawaii, and it really was like calling on the gods. Give me the answer. Ultimately, it was [to not vote],” he said.
Johnson admitted that he voted for former President Barack Obama in the two previous presidential elections.
“The next elections, in 2020, I think I’ll be a little bit more vocal in who I support,” he said.
