I don’t care that New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart introduced President Donald Trump at a rally in New York on Friday. I’m not saying that to avoid taking sides on a controversial topic. I genuinely don’t care about politics or others’ political views. When I turn on cable news once every four years on election night, I have no idea which channel CNN or Fox News is on my TV. If anyone wishes to judge my apolitical outlook, I couldn’t care less.
I state all of that up front because I recognize how toxic the waters I’m wading into can be (which is a big reason why I stay away from politics). I’m more interested in the Giants than political theater; that might not be the most sophisticated worldview, but it probably serves you well as Giants fans.
So, I wasn’t going to weigh in on Dart introducing Trump because — one more time — I don’t care. But once teammate Abdul Carter reacted publicly to Dart’s appearance, the topic entered my domain.
Dart had to know that publicly supporting Trump would expose him to scrutiny. Dart had every right to make the appearance, but it’s surprising that a second-year quarterback in the country’s largest media market would invite the intense spotlight of the political arena. Carter’s post Saturday morning on X, which asked, “What we doing man,” had more than 50 million impressions within 24 hours, providing a clue as to how many people became invested in this tempest.
Carter surely has his fellow 2025 first-round draft pick’s phone number, and he could have reached out directly to discuss the matter with Dart. That private conversation apparently happened shortly after Carter’s tweet, because he followed up roughly 11 hours later with another that stated, “Me & JD6 are good! We spoke earlier as Men. Yall can keep yall narratives.”
The New York Giants selected outside linebacker Abdul Carter, above, with the third overall pick and Jaxson Dart (25th) in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. (Al Bello / Getty Images)
It’s no surprise that Dart handled the conflict based on the interpersonal skills he’s displayed with teammates. But this situation involving the 23-year-old Dart and 22-year-old Carter is a reminder of the collection of young players with outsized personalities the Giants have compiled in recent years. The celebrity status of those players has outpaced their on-field production to date.
Dart has been on the celebrity circuit this offseason, turning up at the Kentucky Derby, UFC fights and no shortage of endorsement opportunities. He seems like the type to squeeze everything out of each 24 hours, and there are no indications that he has neglected his football responsibilities. We found out last week that Dart organized workouts with teammates in California before the team’s offseason program started.
But Dart has a social life, and that plays out on social media. His vibe is much more Joe Namath than Eli Manning. But Broadway Joe didn’t exist in the TikTok era. Manning was deliberately boring during his 16 seasons as the Giants’ starting quarterback. He probably wouldn’t have given a direct answer if asked who the president was during his career, let alone make the type of public endorsement Dart did Friday.
Most modern New York superstars adopt the vanilla public relations strategy perfected by Derek Jeter. Do we know anything about the political leanings of Aaron Judge or Jalen Brunson? Top New York athletes don’t need to act like that, and if Dart’s play matches his charismatic personality, his star power will be off the charts. But the low-profile path is easier to navigate, a lesson Dart likely learned this weekend.
The Giants are fortunate to now have an established head coach to manage these dynamics. John Harbaugh dealt with plenty of big personalities during his 18 years with the Baltimore Ravens. But he will be tested by this group of young players who were enabled at every turn under general manager Joe Schoen and former coach Brian Daboll.
In Harbaugh’s first four months on the job, he has already encountered a few brushfires (which is to say nothing of him needing to answer questions about co-owner Steve Tisch’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein within weeks of taking the job).
Cam Skattebo quickly apologized for having a “lapse in judgment, which resulted in me making a tasteless joke about CTE and asthma” in March. Skattebo called CTE “an excuse” and asthma “fake” on the “Bring The Juice” podcast. Skattebo created headlines as a rookie when he was ringside for a “WWE Raw” event at Madison Square Garden and got into a scripted shoving match with wrestlers three weeks after he suffered a gruesome ankle injury.
Skattebo demonstrated self-awareness last week at the Giants’ Town Hall fan event, when he downplayed the hype over a rookie season in which he produced 410 yards rushing before breaking his fibula and ankle in Week 8. In the next breath, Skattebo predicted he’ll have 300 carries for over 2,000 yards when he plays 17 games this season.
Third-year wide receiver Malik Nabers provided running commentary on the Giants’ top-10 picks during a Bleacher Report draft livestream, questioning how No. 5 pick Arvell Reese will fit in the Giants’ defense and why the team used the 10th pick on offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa instead of safety Caleb Downs.
Harbaugh provided a masterclass response when asked about Nabers’ critiques. He shared that he had a conversation with Nabers the morning after the first round and explained how Reese would fit into the defense. Harbaugh said he doesn’t have a problem with players speaking their minds, “as long as a person’s heart is in the right place.”
“He has a good heart and a good place, you know, say what you think,” Harbaugh said. “Put it out there. … The fact that he says it publicly, who cares?”
New York Giants coach John Harbaugh is working under a different kind of spotlight with a roster loaded with outsized personalities. (Cooper Neill / Getty Images)
It was a refreshing answer from a coach confident in his ability to manage a locker room. But it would have been interesting to see how Harbaugh would have managed Nabers’ tweet after the Giants blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead in an overtime loss to the Detroit Lions last season. Nabers, who was watching from home after tearing his ACL earlier in the season, sharply criticized interim coach Mike Kafka’s “football common sense” and said he sometimes thinks coaches are trying to lose on purpose in a post that was quickly deleted. Kafka claimed days later that he hadn’t seen the tweet and therefore hadn’t addressed it with Nabers.
Nabers has immense talent, and the organization has catered to him since before his first snap. The Giants unretired the No. 1 after co-owner John Mara convinced the family of Hall of Famer Ray Flaherty to make the concession. The first retired jersey in professional football, Flaherty’s No. 1 had been off-limits for almost 90 years until the Giants made the change simply because Nabers wanted a single-digit number.
A year later, Carter tried to get Lawrence Taylor’s No. 56. After the greatest defensive player in NFL history declined, Carter pursued Phil Simms’ No. 11, with Schoen reaching out to the Super Bowl 21 MVP on the rookie’s behalf. Simms’ family pushed him to decline the request, so Carter settled on No. 51, which he has since changed to No. 3.
Everything is magnified in New York, and this Trump-Dart-Carter episode is Harbaugh’s first real taste of that. Harbaugh hasn’t shied away from the political world, doing an extended interview with Fox News shortly after he was named the Giants’ coach. Harbaugh discussed his “awesome” meeting last summer with Trump, who urged the coach to take the Giants job on social media.
It’s too early to say how all of this will play in the locker room, especially with players away from the facility for the holiday weekend. But veteran offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor fired back that the “locker room is fine” at a New England-based reporter who tweeted that Dart “just divided his locker room.”
There is a wide range of political views in the Giants’ locker room. The unifying factor is football. There’s no questioning how much Dart cares about that. He was spotted alongside Skattebo and third-year tight end Theo Johnson watching part of a rookie minicamp practice on a recent Saturday. It was rare to see veterans at the facility on an off day during the offseason, checking out the rookies.
The Giants’ collection of talent and personalities could be electric if everything goes well, potentially becoming this generation’s version of the 1986 Mets. But it’s a powder keg that Harbaugh must manage to prevent storms like this weekend’s from becoming the type of distractions that derail seasons.