Hollywood star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has backtracked on his appraisal of Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, after a barrage of online criticism.
The former WWE champion has deleted a playful tweet referring to his namesake as a “cousin” and praising Boris Johnson’s first speech as prime minister, in which he said people are the “bosses” of the government.
“Breaking: PM Boris Johnson is in fact my cousin [though we clearly look more like twins],” The Rock wrote. “Jokes aside, PM did say something in his speech I liked – ‘the people are our bosses’. 100% agree. The people/audience/consumer will always matter most. #ourboss.”
The rock deleted his tweet endorsing Boris 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/sdt4U6jJbz
— Ryan.🇭🇷 (@RyanJakeFarmer) July 29, 2019
The tweet repeated a light-hearted joke he made in an interview with Good Morning Britain about his upcoming Fast & Furious spin-off film, Hobbs & Shaw.
“He's family, by the way,” the actor said of Boris Johnson. “You don't know that, but now all of Britain knows. He's my cousin. Again, it's like looking in the mirror, every time I see Boris.”
Although the comments clearly came as a joke, Dwayne’s Twitter feed was quickly inundated by Boris Johnson’s angry critics, who claimed the prime minister supported “white supremacy”.
The Tory leader has landed in multiple Islam-related controversies in the past, over his comparison of burqa-wearing Muslim women with "letterboxes" and "bank robbers", and a recently unearthed essay claiming that Islam put the Muslim world “centuries behind” the West.
The Rock then issued a mea culpa, thanking people for giving him “the swift perspective and education on the individual I did not know.”
Well according to the people, maybe we’re not related after all 😂🤦🏽♂️
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) July 29, 2019
Big mahalo to my people who I can always rely on to give me the real talk and swift perspective & education on the individual I did not know 😉Tequila on me, Britain 🙌🏾🥃 https://t.co/xbyjVRBhrB
But a number of Dwayne’s followers were not impressed with his backpedalling and went on to chide him for caving in to “the radical left”.
“’Perspective and education’ from leftists. Don't trust them, trust your instincts. You were right the first time,” wrote one commenter.
Another said: “I doubt you’ve been ‘educated’ on the PM, rather you’ve been given a negative perspective from the left. Find out for yourself before assuming everything you are told is correct.”
The bullies are at it again - radical left! Even a wrestling beast like The Rock is scared of them! When do we say enough is enough!?
— Nate (@ndgg11) July 29, 2019
