Donald Trump said he finally won the respect of one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and wrestling – leaving the door open for a surprise last-minute endorsement.
Trump appeared on the podcast for WWE legend The Undertaker Monday when he discussed his tenuous history with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson – and what suddenly changed it.
‘I never thought he liked me, and I felt badly, because I think he’s a terrific guy,’ Trump admitted to The Undertaker, whose real name is Mark Calaway.
Trump then explained that he received a surprise call from UFC promoter Dana White. White told him The Rock was impressed by his defiant reaction after an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
The accolades come amid neck-and-neck polling and an endorsement from the WWE star would rival Vice President Kamala Harris’ coveted support from pop superstar Taylor Swift.
Donald Trump told WWE legend The Undertaker that he’s won the respect of one of Hollywood and wrestling’s biggest after being shot
Trump discussed his history with The Rock, saying: ‘He was great. I never thought he liked me, and I felt badly, because I think he’s a terrific guy.’
Johnson, who became a Hollywood superstar after his wrestling career, has a social media following that could give Swifties a run for their money.
He has an Instagram following that eclipses even that of the pop princess, with a staggering 395 million fans compared to Swift’s 283 million.
Johnson apparently thought it was ‘incredible’ how Trump hoisted his fist in the air after being shot during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
‘Dana White said, when I was shot — took a shot to the ear, you may have heard about it — Rock called Dana and said, “I want to have his number. I want to have his number. What he did is sort of incredible,”‘ Trump said on the ‘Six Feet Under’ podcast.
‘He considered it bravery. I don’t know, to me, I considered it, ‘What’s going on here?’ But it was very nice, the Rock.’
Johnson, who recently admitted to regretting his endorsement for President Biden over Trump in 2020, has left the door open this election by staying silent.
Johnson publicly praised Trump while speaking at a conference in Florida last month.
‘Whether you love Donald, don’t love Donald, it doesn’t matter. They tried to assassinate him,’ Johnson said, according to the Washington Times.
‘There’s no room for that. Despite it being who we were in that moment, I still believe in my core that is not who we are as a country. So him standing up at that moment, we wanted to see that.’
The Undertaker agreed with Johnson’s take on Trump’s response to the shooting and Trump asked him to pass along his good feelings to Johnson
Dwayne The Rock Johnson has admitted he regretted endorsing Joe Biden in 2020 and won’t be backing him in 2024
Johnson has teased a run for office someday. The Hollywood megastar told Fox and Friends in April that he isn’t happy with the ‘state’ of America.
He admitted that ‘woke’ policies and ‘cancel culture’ really ‘bugs him’.
In a stunning reversal, he also admitted that publicly supporting Biden over Trump four years ago caused ‘division’ – something he said ‘tears me up.’
‘The endorsement that I made years ago with Biden was one I thought was the best decision for me at that time,’ he told the program.
‘I realize now going into this election, I will not do that, my goal is to bring this country together,’ he added.
‘I will keep my politics to myself. It is between me and the ballot box. Like a lot of us out there, not trusting of all politicians, I do trust the American people and whoever they vote for that is my president and who I will support 100 percent’.
True to his word, he has yet to make any endorsement in the 2024 election, only professing his admiration for Trump’s response to the shooting.
It was a stunning turnaround from 2020, when the Rock gave a full-throated endorsement, in a move the Biden campaign promoted on its website.
Johnson said it was something he had ‘never done in the past’ but decided to ‘go big’ and followed a sit-down with both of them.
‘I’ve never publicly endorsed a Presidential candidate or Vice Presidential Candidate in my life,’ he said at the time.
‘You guys are both experienced to lead, you’ve done great things. Joe you’ve had such an incredible career, and you’ve led with such great compassion, heart, drive, and soul … Kamala you have been a district attorney, a state attorney, a U.S. Senator. You are smart and tough. I have seen you in those hearings,’ he said.
He called them the ‘best choice to lead our country.’
Harris gushed back in a zoom meeting that included Joe Biden and the Rock that she was a ‘huge fan of Fast & Furious, all of them to Jumanji,’ referencing his film catalogue.
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