“He’s a Capital G” - The Rock Dragged Into Hollywood Political War

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:00)
A story about The Rock, which is like, hey, Rock, we want you to talk politics. You're famous. You got 500 million followers on social media. Why are you not bashing Trump? And The Rock's like, dude, let me just do my thing. Leave me alone, man. Let me just go out there and do my, what is the show and the cartoon and all this stuff that I'm doing. Why are you bothering me? Let me live my life. Nope, we need you to criticize. So let me read this to you. Hollywood star stars began lashing out Dwayne Johnson on Monday after he re-iterated his stance to keep his personal politics out of public eye after telling Esquire earlier this month that he hates the slinging of modern politics, Star Trek alum George Takei and stand by me actor, Wil Wheaton took to social media to slam Johnson with Taki arguing that his silence makes him complicit.
The Rock's recent comments to Esquire about wanting to keep my politics to myself has divided fans with some calling his silence.
Taki wrote on threads. He then replied to his post on Monday, writing, silence his complicity. Wheaton also called out Johnson in a thread post, later deleted, that was reported by Entertainment Weekly, writing, so disappointing to find that he is such a coward. However, some came to Johnson's defense online, including comedian Matt Rife, who took on X to mock Wheaton's coward comments. I love how he's a coward, but could quite literally tear Will's throat out through his asshole, Rife wrote on a Wednesday, adding this internet comment, world is so bold. The controversy stems from Johnson's Esquire interview.
For the magazine's Summer 2026 cover story, the actor known for starring in the Fast and Furious franchise, as well as Jumanji Films explained why he'll be keeping his political views private from now on. What I learned through experiences that I need to keep need not want the main thing, the main thing, I said. And the main thing for me is the thing that in the morning, I swing my legs out of bed and I run towards is creating. It's art, it's storytelling. I've learned I'm going to keep my politics to myself. Good for him. What do you think about what he said here?

**SPEAKER_2** (2:07)
Listen Pat, for someone that was in Hollywood and learned really, really quick, you open your mouth or you say something funny. I said something about, because this was Valuet, I was in during 2016, 15, I was going on stage and I was making funny jokes. I was seeing Trump. I never cared about Trump. When I saw Trump at the Apprentice, you're fired. I was just like, yeah, whatever, whatever. So I went on stage and I was making jokes.
I got off stage and the owner of the Comic Club, and I'm not going to say who it was, was like this, hey, you can't be going up there and talking positive about this. And I'm like, wait, what? I go, I thought this was a comedy club. So I wasn't getting stage time because I was talking positive about Trump. So that being said, it could ruin your entire career because this game, and we all know this, oh, also this, I went to get a comedy booker, a person who booked me for comedy, and they were like, came to see me, headline crushed it, standing ovation. I went for the gusto, you know what he said? Yeah, I can't sell you.
You're not mainstream. I'm like, what are you talking about? I go on Middle Eastern, ethically ambiguous, I can play whatever. They're like, yeah, you're a Republican. Literally said that, and this is a big comedy booker, manager, agent, whatever you want to call him. And I realized it. Either you go, listen, either you're political or you're not. This is a business decision and good for him. Because once you go full, you know what I mean? There's no coming back. Once they label you as past, especially Hollywood, it's over for you.

**Patrick Bet-David** (3:35)
So good, so good, so good.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:37)
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**Patrick Bet-David** (4:01)
But what do you think?

**SPEAKER_2** (4:02)
Because I think he's one of us.

**Patrick Bet-David** (4:03)
What do you think Rack is deep down inside?