The New York Giants are seemingly always full of drama. So maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the quiet of the offseason was interrupted by an appearance from quarterback Jaxson Dart introducing Donald Trump at a rally and getting called out by Abdul Carter.
The two Giants rookies were drafted last year in the first round as foundational pieces for Big Blue on both sides of the ball. But at least politically, it doesn’t seem like the two see eye-to-eye.
Dart made the decision to introduce and endorse Trump as he was giving a speech in New York last Friday. That led to him being called out by Carter in a post on X with him saying, “Thought this sh!t was AI, what we doing man.”
thought this sh!t was AI, what we doing man https://t.co/ePR3b4MZEv
— Abdul Carter (@1NCRDB1) May 23, 2026
Carter issued another post that said he and Dart were good and had a conversation as men. But as you might expect, the media firestorm around the appearance, the post, and the allure of Donald Trump dividing the Giants locker room is simply too irresistible to ignore.
On Tuesday morning, WFAN host Boomer Esiason addressed the situation. And given Esiason has been vocal about his support for Trump and even more vocal about athletes who choose to speak up in opposition to him, it wasn’t exactly a shock to see where he landed and whose side he took.
Boomer just TORCHED Abdul Carter: “Only one man was on that call, and it was Jaxson Dart.”😳 pic.twitter.com/hIJ2LDJqqs
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) May 26, 2026
“This was a real error on the part of Abdul Carter, not on the part of Jaxson Dart,” Esiason said. “Jaxson Dart was asked to introduce the President of the United States. How many people get an opportunity to do something like that, regardless of who the president is. You may have hated Barack Obama, you may have hated Joe Biden. And some guys didn’t want to go to the White House because they didn’t like those presidents, just like other guys didn’t want to go to the White House because they didn’t like President Trump.”
“But to put this out like a child on social media is ridiculous. And then when I heard, ‘yea we spoke man to man,’ there was only one man on that call and that was Jaxson Dart. You were a man who was late to meetings, you were a man who didn’t live up to your draft choice. You’re a man who wanted to wear #56, and by the way your idol #56 has introduced Donald Trump numerous times, so I don’t want to hear this. He made another just boneheaded error by going to social media,” Esiason added.
You can understand where Boomer Esiason is coming from in Carter’s tweet making this more of a story. And there are certainly some questions about his decision-making given some of the issues off the field last season with him and the Giants in his rookie year.
But on a macro scale, this is exactly the point that Mike Ryan made a few months ago in response to Boomer Esiason telling Olympic athletes to pipe down, and the double standards that exist when it comes to injecting politics into sports. This isn’t the 1990s and Donald Trump is not just the President of the United States. He is the single most divisive figure in American life in generations. And at the moment, he is a historically unpopular figure, too.
By introducing Trump in New York, Dart had to know what he was opening himself up to. That was his initial choice and he has to be willing to accept the fallout that would come with it, either from fans or from teammates. If Jaxson Dart is willing to endorse Donald Trump publicly given all that it entails, why is it wrong for Abdul Carter to speak out about it? Either everyone is going to have to shut up and dribble, or everyone should be free to express themselves and live with the consequences.
About Matt Yoder