Son of billionaire Trump pal scores huge COVID-19 government contract from Ron DeSantis

The son of a billionaire friend of President Donald Trump's scored a no-bid contract in Florida thanks to a favor from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).

According to the Florida Bulldog, DeSantis's administration handed more than $4 million in no-bid, COVID-19-related contracts to a New York City social media startup founder.

Hedge fund billionaire Nelson Peltz's son "Diesel," 27, scored a $2.75 million contract for Twenty Labs, LLC in June for a customer relationship management platform to do contact tracing.

In a Saturday editorial from the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, DeSantis was accused of "failing" Florida by"hiding information, dodging questions and downplaying the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic as it escalates its deadly march across Florida."

It begs the question, why is Florida bothering with contact tracing if DeSantis is quashing the number of infections or deaths.

Months after the first contract to Peltz, "the governor's office signed a $1.5 million contract with Twenty Labs, which operates a COVID-19 mobile phone app. The Florida state's contract database called it a "contract (sic) tracing application."

According to the Bulldog, Peltz's social media company is located on Park Ave. in Manhattan, the same building where his father's hedge fund is located.

"We're capable of delivering Apple and Google within the Healthy Together app, but that is not what was asked of us by the Florida Department of Health," said Twenty co-founder Jared Allgood in a call from the Bulldog.

He said that the goal of the app is to reduce the amount of time contact tracers must spend on the phone with people.

The elder Peltz hosted a large fundraiser for Trump in Palm Beach. DeSantis notoriously left early before Trump even spoke, and it became a huge point of contention between the two.

Read the full piece at the Florida Bulldog.