Michael Waltz's Venmo Friends List Is Worth a Thousand Words or Maybe a Thousand Journalists

After President Donald Trump's national security advisor was caught using Signal to discuss a missile strike in Yemen, he went on Fox News to fall on the proverbial sword. Mike Waltz told host Laura Ingraham that he accepted "full responsibility" for what happened. "I built the group," he said, referring to the 18 individuals added to the chat, one of whom was the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Jeffrey Goldberg was not supposed to be added to the group but was invited by Waltz.

He accused Goldberg of previously going to "great lengths" to lie and smear President Trump, saying it was rather odd that this particular reporter ended up in the Signal group. Waltz said Goldberg isn't in his phone contacts and said the two have never met. Speaking of contacts, after this interview, Waltz's Venmo friends list was made public, and it's telling.

When will people learn to always set their Venmo to private? How can we trust Waltz to advise anyone on national security when he can't even tighten up his own Venmo account? Waltz's public Venmo account was first reported by Wired, who found an account under the name "Michael Waltz" with a picture of the former Army Special Forces officer.

The outlet noted there were 328 contacts in the Venmo friends list, and while Goldberg wasn't one of them, other journalists were in the mix. There were also colleagues from Trump's administration, such as U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, National Security Council staffer Walker Barrett, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Since the Venmo list was published, the accounts reportedly belonging to Waltz and Wiles have been set to private.

While this may seem silly, it is another example of what could be described as a security breach. Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, posted to X, "I genuinely do not understand how anyone in politics can be stupid enough to have their Venmo public after the Matt Gaetz debacle, but somehow his former House colleague who is now national security adviser did."