TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – A Florida college student who garnered attention for tracking Elon Musk’s private jet on Twitter last year has found a new subject to track – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney created a new Twitter account, @DeSantisJet, to follow the government-owned jet that DeSantis uses. Sweeney told Insider that he set up the account to track the governor “because of the rising interest in DeSantis,” amid speculation that he will announce his intention to run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination “any day now.”
“Well, you know Ron DeSantis is becoming more and more of a public figure in that he might run for the White House,” Sweeney said.
While it’s not confirmed if DeSantis will run for president, the governor has been making headlines for legislature that’s been recently passed in the state, including a bill that was signed into law that will “redact details about trips [DeSantis] makes on both state, private and chartered flight.”
The bill, which was signed into law on May 11, also redacts the details of the names of staff and family members traveling with him. However, it’s still possible to track the governor’s whereabouts.
The new account created by Sweeney uses publicly available data from the flight-tracking platform ADS-B Exchange. In the @DeSantisJet Twitter page bio, Sweeney stated that he uses this platform to track the governor’s travels.
Since the account was just created this month, the college student shared the first tweet about the governor’s travels when he flew from Tallahassee to Tampa on May 17. While all the data Sweeney uses to track DeSantis’ private jet is public, the Twitter account doesn’t release flight information until 24 hours after the trip to “comply with Twitter Rules.”
The new rule was listed in an updated privacy policy on the social media site, restricting users from sharing others’ live locations. This rule came after Sweeney made headlines when Musk offered him $5,000 to remove the Twitter account that tracks his private jet.
Ultimately, Sweeney denied the offer, keeping the account active, but when Musk became the CEO of Twitter, he suspended the account. The student found a way around his ban when he created a new account, “@ElonJetNextDay,” which posts the jet travels a day later.
The creation of the @DeSantisJet account comes just before a travel advisory was issued for the state of Florida by a leading civil rights group, the NAACP, this weekend.
The organization said the advisory “comes in direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.”
Several bills signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are cited in the advisory, including the 6-week abortion ban, the Constitutional Carry Act, and the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act.” Bills reducing access to gender-affirming healthcare are also cited in the advisory.
In an email to 8 On Your Side, Governor Ron DeSantis’ office said the travel advisory is a stunt, which is how DeSantis has responded to previous travel warnings.
“We get involved in these stupid fights,” DeSantis said months ago. “This is a stunt to try to do that. It’s a pure stunt. And fine, if you want to waste your time on a stunt, that’s fine.”
As of this report, the @DeSantisJet Twitter account already has 8,444 followers.
Sweeney told News Channel 8 he is not motivated by a political agenda.
“People can do what they want,” he said. “There can be supporters that are interested in where he goes and want to follow them or people who are more criticizing for what flights they’re going where.”
