Jaxson Dart’s pro-Trump stance, like Saquon Barkley’s golf match, won’t affect the Giants

The first question I asked in the Eagles’ locker room last season was directed to a politically aware Black player with distinct anti-Trump sentiments.

The question, asked with the understanding the response would be anonymous: “What do you think of Barkley hanging out with Trump?”

Response: “Don’t care. Long as he plays.”

Poof, just like that, a column idea died.

Jaxson Dart’s awkward role in the kerfuffle on Friday will have similar non-consequences. Dart, the Giants’ quarterback, glowingly introduced President Donald Trump at a political rally for Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.). That sparked an outraged response on X from Giants linebacker Abdul Carter:

“Thought this [stuff] was AI, what we doing man.”

The tweet got more than 53 million views.

Carter’s very public, very anti-MAGA response to the political act of a teammate is unusual, and speculation that Dart, or to be fair, Carter, had spoiled the Giants’ locker room before the season even got starter. Then again, Carter is a Philadelphia native, and, thereby, fearless.

Or is he?

Carter sent the first tweet at 6:52 a.m. Saturday morning. Just 11 hours later he’d softened his stance and reconciled with Dart: “Me & JD6 are good! We spoke earlier as Men. Y’all can keep y’all narratives,” he tweeted.

Maybe Carter remembered his new coach, John Harbaugh, is great pals with Trump.

Or maybe the public just overreacted.

Because athletes don’t care about each others’ politics. They do harbor strong feelings about topics such as PED use, sports gambling, domestic abuse, and whether Kobe or LeBron is the GOAT (correct answer: Jordan), and the religious guys might try to convert you, but they leave politics out of it.

It’s not as if Carter, who thanked Allah on draft night 2025, is going to blindside Dart in training camp drills because Trump wants to ban Muslims.

Similarly, none of Saquon Barkley’s teammates last year seemed to care much about Barkley letting Trump using him as a political prop.

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Barkley in April of 2025 played golf and lunched with the president at one of Trump’s courses on the morning that Barkley and a contingent of Eagles visited the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl LIX win. Quarterback Jalen Hurts and receiver A.J. Brown did not attend.

Barkley’s interaction with Trump, like Dart’s introduction, created an online furor. Barkley is Black, and by late April of 2025 Trump had begun openly attacking Black icons and institutions, such as the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen. Barkley responded with a tweet midround, chastising critics to “get out of my mentions.”

Tellingly, that tweet appears to have been deleted.

Granted, athletes who endorse moderate or progressive political personalities tend to catch less grief than Trump supporters, but when 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa wore a MAGA hat as he crashed a televised postgame interview in 2024, nothing more came of it than a $11,255 fine, which Bosa said was “well worth it.”

At any rate, Barkley’s decision to pander to Trump did not divide the Eagles’ locker room. Dart’s decision to essentially endorse Trump, even in his clumsy, frat-boy manner, might be something different, but it’s nothing major:

“Wassup, wassup, wassup! I’m pleasured to introduce the 45th and 47th President of the United States ...”

Pleasured?

Whatever.

Over the weekend social media, perhaps bored with the absence of fresh MAGA strife — the latest “assassination attempt” (a gunman was killed Sunday near the White House) got less attention than the East Coast rain that ruined Memorial Day weekend — remained stimulated by Dart’s performance a few days before.

This, despite a tweet from teammate Jermaine Eluemunor that the “Locker room is fine.”

A report from the New York Post said that the Giants considered Dart’s appearance a “misstep,” probably because Dart also encouraged the crowd to participate in pro-Giants cheers before the introduction, an possible implication that the Giants were on board with Dart’s appearance. They were ignorant of it. The reports also said that Harbaugh (of all people) has spoken to Dart about his involvement with Trump.

Seems a bit much. Seems performative, if locker-room harmony is the issue.

Guys just don’t care.

Politics aren’t new in locker rooms, but they seldom affect the vibe. One former Eagles lineman from California in the late 1990s constantly talked politics until he realized nobody was listening. Eagles Pro Bowl tackle Jon Runyan was never bashful about his views and won two terms as a Republican congressman in New Jersey beginning in 2010, the year after he retired.

In both cases, their politics just didn’t seem to matter. As long as Dart plays well, it’s probably not going to matter for him, either.

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There may come a day when teammates and fans voice more stringent opposition to the perversions of governance that have compromised the combined 5½ years of Trump rule; most likely this November, if obvious preparations by Trump to manipulate the midterm elections manifest themselves. Until then, for better or, more likely, for worse, we’re not there yet.

Dart and Barkley are sort of like you and me. We all have folks whose actions and beliefs we disagree with. They might be coworkers, like Abdul Carter, or maybe they’re neighbors we share a fence with, the parents of our kids’ friends, or maybe even family.

In general, you live with them. You vote opposite them. You get on with your life.

Football players are no different.