“Worthy of My Attention?”: Dwayne Johnson Reveals Original Reaction to Facing the Maui Fund Backlash

Earlier this August, the picturesque Hawaii received a jolt as a massive wildfire razed parts of the island. One of the worst hit was Maui, the second-largest in the state, prompting reactions from Dwayne Johnson. Seeing his beloved island fall prey to the fire, Johnson teamed up with billionaire Oprah Winfrey and the duo took to social media to ask people for donations.

This, however, didn’t strike a chord with a lot of social media users. People accused Winfrey and Johnson of asking for money from commoners while their combined net worth stood at billions of dollars. Now, several months later, The Great One has opened up about the backlash.

“These are my people,” Dwayne Johnson opens up on Maui fund backlash

The People’s Champion was a guest on the What Now? with Trevor Noah podcast recently. The 51-year-old spoke at length about the Maui Fund. Johnson said he was trying to process the backlash in the initial days, thinking about what had he done wrong.

“So it took me a couple of weeks to really process that and I felt like. That moment was a pivotal moment for me in my life for a few reasons. Number one, I want to go back to, the brass tacks of it. And the whole idea of creating this fund, the People’s fund of Maui, was to help people and help survivors and Trev, These are my people. These are my Polynesian people, my Hawaiian Kanaka, Ohana, Aynga, my grandparents. They’re all buried in the islands, you know,” Johnson told Noah.

The Hollywood star said that it’s important to not let backlash get in the way while pursuing such a work. Johnson also admitted to playing the waiting game during the criticism.

DJ added, “And I felt like my gut said it’s going to take a couple of weeks, but let me really take a look at it. I don’t want to respond to it right now. Let’s stay focused on the mission. And the mission is to help the survivors right now who have nothing, and they are devastated.” The Rock said he said that a lot of criticism he felt was “political noise.”

“I wanted to make sure that we just pause, and I was just waiting for, well, where’s the criticism here that is worthy of my attention? That really makes sense. And then that’s it. This is what I feel I got,” he added. According to the former WWE Champion, The People’s Fund of Maui has admittedly helped over 8,000 survivors get aid.

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Meanwhile, Johnson isn’t the only one who has reacted to the criticism. Earlier, Winfrey also stated her view on the issue.

Oprah Winfrey hits back at trolls after receiving criticism

As mentioned above, Johnson wasn’t the only one who appealed for the donations, prominent talk show host Oprah Winfrey had also joined him. Therefore they both received criticism online. Soon after the saga, Winfrey appeared on CBS Mornings in September to promote her book, Build the Life You Want.

She slammed the trolls for the unfavorable remarks. The 69-year-old admitted feeling daunted by social media users and said, “…sad that we’re in this state in our country.”

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Johnson, on the other hand, has had a more diplomatic response to the issue, and he also chose to react much later than his senior collaborator on The People’s Fund. So, what’s your take on Johnson’s response? Let us know in the comments.