New York Giants star quarterback Jaxson Dart’s public show of support for Donald Trump has left teammate Abdul Carter genuinely dumbfounded.
Dart, 23, who was drafted as a first-round pick in 2025, recently came out as a MAGA supporter, appearing at a Friday campaign-style rally meant to boost Republican Representative Mike Lawler’s re-election bid, alongside the president.
“Thought this s*** was AI,” Carter, 22, wrote on X, alongside a clip of Dart introducing Trump onstage. “What we doing man?”
Carter, also a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, plays linebacker for the Giants.
The Independent has contacted Dart’s representative for comment.
Taking the stage at Friday’s rally in Suffern, New York, Dart led the crowd in a Giants chant before adding: “What an honor, what a privilege it is to be here. And without further ado, I’m grateful, I’m honored, I’m pleasured [sic] to introduce the 45th and 47th president of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump.”
As Trump walked out on stage to the soundtrack of Lee Greenwood’s 1984 hit “God Bless the USA,” he greeted the NFL player with a warm handshake.
The president called Dart a “future Hall of Fame-er” and a “beautiful guy” who has “got legs like tree trunks,” and he invoked the athlete as he railed against transgender people playing in sports leagues corresponding with their gender identity.
“I’m looking at Jaxson,” Trump said, “I’d like to know, is there any woman in the audience that thinks they can tackle that guy? Because I’d like to meet you. I’d like to shake your hand. I don’t know. Jaxson, you think you can play against women OK?… Don’t get involved Jaxson. Don’t answer that question.”
Later, Trump gave another shoutout to Dart, mentioning him, seemingly at random, as he discussed the Democrats’ “autopsy” report on the 2024 election.
“It was called an autopsy. And they had typos, Jaxson, they had typos in every other sentence,” the president said. “They had misspelled words. They had commas in the wrong location.”
Dart wasn’t previously known for being a highly visible Trump supporter.
The closest he came was last September, when the Giants quarterback condemned the killing of conservative activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk, though many liberals also condemned the ideologically motivated assassination.
“Praying for him and his family,” Dart wrote on social media at the time. “Charlie did great things for our country!! Political Violence NEEDS TO STOP!! Pray for our country man. This is disgusting and sad.”
