Did Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Elton John endorse Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential race? No, that's not true: Video clips of Johnson and John do not show either one of them having said that they endorse Trump for the 2024 presidential election, as of this writing on September 10, 2024. The two celebrities described Trump as a fan of theirs, but did not say they believed he should be reelected as president. Both men have said in publicly available interviews that they will not endorse any U.S. presidential candidate in 2024.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) posted on Alex Jones' X account on September 9, 2024. The text for the video's caption read:
BREAKING: The Harris Campaign Is Now In Total Freefall-- Hundreds Of Top Celebrities Like The Rock & Elton John Are Now Endorsing Trump
We Are Witnessing A Total Political Realignment
This is what the post looked like at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: X screenshot captured Tues Sept 10 17:46:04 UTC 2024)
Neither man said in the video that he was endorsing Trump for reelection.
'The Rock'
The 20-minute video posted by Jones, a talk show host whom Lead Stories has previously fact checked, opened with a clip of Johnson, an actor-wrestler-entrepreneur, speaking about Trump at The Vault Conference (archived here), a September 2024 gathering about achieving business success. Johnson said the former president used to be a fan of his and that they've met. "He used to come watch me wrestle all the time ... Madison Square Garden. It was great," he said.
Johnson then condemned the July 2024 assassination attempt against Trump. At the 25-second mark, he said (based on the audio, not the subtitles):
Whether you love Donald, you don't love Donald, it doesn't matter. They tried to assassinate him. There's no room for that. And yes, 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 in that moment, we wanted to see that.
Johnson, who backed Biden-Harris in 2020, never endorsed Trump in the video.
Multiple news outlets, including Fox News (archived here), The Guardian (archived here) and The Hollywood Reporter (archived here), have reported that the actor-wrestler will not endorse any candidate in 2024. In April 2024, Johnson, referring to his Biden endorsement, told Fox News that:
Am I going to do that again this year? That answer's no. I'm not going to do that.
Elton John
The Jones video's clip of Elton John began at 0:51. It showed a September 2024 Variety (archived here) interview with John. The clip started with John responding about Trump nicknaming North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un "Rocket Man," the title of the singer's hit 1972 song. John said:
I laughed, I thought it was brilliant. I just thought, 'Good on you, Donald.' Donald's always been a fan of mine, and he's been to my concerts many, many times. So, I mean, I've always been friendly toward him, and I thank him for his support. When he did that, I just thought it was hilarious. It made me laugh.
Thanking Trump for "his support," John said that he had "always been friendly toward" the ex-president, who, he said, has attended his concerts multiple times.
John, who is not a U.S. citizen and cannot vote in the 2024 election, did not endorse Trump for president during the video. A longer version of the interview posted on Variety's YouTube account (archived here) showed that John did not endorse Trump when asked if he had a message about the election. At 14:00, he responded:
The thing with music, and what I've been gifted all my life to do ... music and sport are the two common denominators in life that bring people together no matter what religion they are, no matter what political party they vote for. I don't go on stage and say to people, 'You mustn't vote for the Republicans. You mustn't vote for Democrats.' It's none of my business how they vote.
News outlets, including The Guardian (archived here) and Newsweek (archived here), reported on John's comments but did not report that he endorsed Trump, which would have been major news.
Lead Stories reached out to representatives for Elton John and also contacted a representative for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. If we receive a response, this fact check will be updated as appropriate.
Lead Stories previously has fact-checked additional claims about Alex Jones, Donald Trump, The Rock and Elton John. Our fact checks related to the 2024 presidential election can be found here.
