Dwayne Johnson is the biggest movie star in the world, but in recent years there’s been talk that The Rock may have his sights set on political office, specifically
Johnson could run for President of the United States. In the past, The Rock has at least teased the possibility that he might seriously consider running, but he now says his candidacy is “off the table” at least for the moment, because his job as dad is more important.
In an interview clip posted to Twitter from CBS Sunday Morning, Dwayne Johnson is asked about his political ambitions, and he says that running for President just isn’t an option, at least in this moment. The Rock says that right now is a critical time in the lives of his young daughters, and so he plans to be there for them first and foremost. Johnson explains…
It’s off the table. Yes. It is off the table. I will say this because it requires a B-side to this. I love our country and everyone in it. I also love being a daddy. And that’s the most important thing to me is being a daddy, number one, especially during this time, this critical time in my daughters’ lives.
Dwayne Johnson has two young daughters, aged seven and four, and he wants to watch them grow up and be there for them. He understands that the demands of simply running for President, nevermind actually having the job, would force him to focus on other things in his life, and he’s not willing to do that.
And Johnson has a unique perspective on exactly this issue, because he admits that he made this mistake before. The Rock has an older daughter from his first marriage, that he admits that he wasn’t always there for her during her early years, and he doesn’t want to make the same mistake. Johnson continues…
I know what it was like to be on the road and to be so busy that I was absent for a lot of years. My first daughter’s growing up in this critical age at this critical time in her life and that’s what the presidency will do. So my number one priority is my daughters. Sure, CEO sounds great. But, the number one thing I want to be is daddy, that’s it.
Dwayne Johnson’s first daughter was born in 2001, when he was still active in WWE and was only just beginning to get his movie career started. Those two things combined almost certainly took him away from his family a lot. He clearly has regrets about that fact and now that he’s a massive star and one of the highest paid actors in the world, he doesn’t need to be away from his family as much, and so he simply won’t be doing that.
I think we can all agree that Dwayne Johnson has his priorities straight here. Having said that, he’s only 50-years-old now, he’s actually on the younger side of most Presidential candidates. In a decade or so, when his kids are older, Johnson would still be young enough to run for office, so while being President might be off the table for now, that may change in the future.