While presidential hopeful Gov. Ron DeSantis met with families of the victims of 9/11 during a Memorial Day barbecue Saturday, his GOP contender Donald Trump hosted a Saudi-funded golf tournament at the same time, The New York Post reports.

While DeSantis almost certainly knew this was happening and used this as an opportunity to show up the former president, he wasted no time in attacking Trump.

The Republican governor hosted about 500 veterans, Gold Star families, and those who had lost loved ones in the September 11 attacks. The barbecue was held at the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee.

DeSantis also met privately with eight 9/11 families to hear their stories and their concerns, one relative of a victim said.

“It was just so remarkable and gracious that the governor of Florida invited us to his home,” Brett Eagleson, 37, told The

“It was just so remarkable and gracious that the governor of Florida invited us to his home,” Brett Eagleson, 37, told The Post. “He gave us over an hour of his time and listened to every one of our stories.”

Eagleson’s father lost his life while working in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and his young son was only 15.

How sad.

But he’s now the president of the organization 9/11 Justice, where he’s spent the last seven years digging up whatever information he can about Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the attacks.

And Eagleson singled out Trump for special attention — obviously angry at the ex-president for hosting a LIV golf tournament this past weekend that is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

“I just want to juxtapose that against what a former president is doing on this very weekend at a golf course and one of his own golf courses, lining the pockets from a country who stands accused in a trial as we speak… of aiding and abetting and sponsoring the 9/11 terror attacks,” he said comparing the actions of Trump and DeSantis.

Earlier in the month, an advocacy group for 9/11 families fired off a letter to the ex-president and condemned the three-day tournament as “an insult to the memory of those killed in the attacks.”

“Your decision to maintain an ongoing business partnership with the Saudi government has been deeply hurtful to the 9/11 community,” wrote Terry Strada, the national chair of 9/11 Families United. Her husband was killed at the World Trade Center.

The tournament was held at Trump National Golf Course in Northern Virginia — 29 miles from the Pentagon, where 184 people lost their lives in the attack that killed nearly 3000 people.

Trump responded last week that he “fully understand[s] and love[s]” the 9/11 families.

“But it’s tremendous economic development, tremendous number of jobs, just for an event like this — it’s a big event,” he told reports at the Virginia golf course.

But many people who lost loved ones in the attack were upset by his remarks.

“He’s choosing profits, and he’s choosing his own interests over the interests of one of America’s most victimized groups, and that is the 9/11 community,” Eagleson said, responding to Trump’s comments.

He also said that he and other 9/11 families met with Trump at the White House in 2019. At the time Trump promised to support them, then turned right around, Eagleson said, and made it more difficult for the families to get answers.

Many relatives of the 2,977 people killed in the attacks want to see Saudi Arabia’s government held accountable.

In his remarks at Saturday’s barbecue, DeSantis said the Sept. 11 attack prompted him to join the Navy.

“We’ve got a lot of great people here today, we are going to meet with some of the families from 9/11,” he told the crowd. “I’ll tell you that is one of the reasons I joined the military after that.”

Eagleson noted DeSantis listened to each person who spoke about losing a loved one on 9/11, something that was for him a “very moving meeting” with “a lot of tears.”

“This is such a hard fight and we’ve been [doing it for] 22 years and the family members are tired, they’re frustrated,” he said. “We’ve had to fight our own government for transparency all this time.”

While it’s nice that DeSantis held this barbecue, it remains to be seen how altruistic he’ll be if he is elected president. This barbecue was a well-placed kick in the knees of Trump’s 2024 campaign but someone who works so hard to deprive women in Florida of their rights, who despises trans people, someone who is singlehandedly trying to erase Black history and maintain ridiculously strict control over what schoolchildren learn can not arguably be described as a nice person.

Trump, of course, isn’t any better but DeSantis is Trump on steroids.