John Harbaugh unlikely to criticize Jaxson Dart over Trump rally appearance

New York Giants coach John Harbaugh is getting a chance to settle the controversy over Jaxson Dart’s attendance at President Donald Trump’s rally on Friday afternoon as he will speak to reporters for the first time since the issue began sucking all the oxygen out of the team’s offseason schedule.

Harbaugh will be asked about the starting quarterback’s apparent loyalty to the president.

And the manager, who has been the undisputed epicenter of power in the team since he was hired in January, will have his say and that will be it. Because whatever he decides, the players will follow him. The front office will follow suit. And the media will have to report what the most important voice in the organization decides, whether you agree with it or not.

So this saga is approaching its climax.

ABDUL CARTER DELETE CRITIQUE ABOUT JAXSON DART ABOUT TRUMP MYTH

Is your popcorn ready?

The scheduled availability of 2:30 PM ET – yes, around lunchtime for some – can be quite satisfactory.

This leads us to the next logical question: What will Harbaugh say? How will he get over his first minor, non-football crisis with his new club?

We have an intuition based on the experience of knowing how Harbaugh operates and what he believes. But before sharing this, please understand that the coach actually only has a small number of options.

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Harbaugh can:

• I agree Jaxson Dart made a mistake when he agreed to introduce the president of the United States at a rally and lead the crowd in a “Go Big Blue” chant.
• I agree that Abdul Carter was wrong to call out his teammate on social media, posting posts that the edge rusher has since deleted.
• Recognize that this is a team effort and is being handled internally without further details being offered; This means all oxygen will be strangled from the narratives that the media, pundits, former players and social media are dying to keep the content flowing.
• Or Harbaugh could be more subtle.

NFL quarterback Jaxson Dart introduces President Donald Trump at the Fighting For American Workers event on May 22, 2026 in Suffern, NY. ((Ryan Murphy/AP))

We will choose the last one.

There’s zero chance Harbaugh will throw Dart under the bus. This will definitely not happen.

First and foremost, he won’t bring down the man he needs most to succeed as a player and team leader. Second, Harbaugh agrees with Dart on most Trump-related issues.

People seem to forget this.

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Most of the Harbaugh clan — Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim HarbaughTheir father, mother, sister and four children visited Trump at the White House last year.

Afterwards, the Harbaughs spoke enthusiastically about the visit. When things got a little ugly in Baltimore because a left-wing journalist accused John Harbaugh of meeting with someone who said bad things about the city, the coach effectively pushed back.

Therefore, the same man cannot logically criticize his starting quarterback for also meeting with Trump.

It will be interesting how much Harbaugh criticizes Carter by name.

Look, the coach is almost certain to preach keeping team business within team boundaries. Carter publicly broke that agreement on social media. But there is a way to highlight the issue without embarrassing Carter and making him look like the bad guy. This doesn’t help anyone interested in seeing Carter grow and become a significant contributor on defense.

So the coach is almost certain to walk a fine line between telling a key player that team business is sacrosanct without sparking an investigation.

Finally, prepare for this: If Harbaugh finds any blame in all this, it will probably be on your side; curious public, curious media, opinionated influencers.

You are all bad guys.

New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart greets President Donald Trump during the Fight for American Workers event on May 22, 2026 in Suffern, NY. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

Not his players, not his team, not his new family. You He turned this into a thing, not the Giants.

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Of course, this doesn’t work very well in the real world. But Harbaugh doesn’t care. He cares about his own world, where the Giants’ practice facility is located, where their players work and where Harbaugh’s success or failure as a coach is defined.

We are on air at 14:30

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