(José Niño, Headline USA) National security adviser Michael Waltz continues to face scrutiny after he included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, in a Signal chat where war plans about bombing Yemen were being discussed.
On Wednesday, it was revealed that his Venmo friend list was publicly accessible until very recently.
Mike Waltz (of Signal chat fame) forgot to lock down his Venmo and it’s full of journalists lol. @DRBoguslaw scooped the whole list:https://t.co/n4376ImTBg
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) March 26, 2025
During a phone interview on Tuesday with NBC News, President Trump initially defended his national security adviser before the press, saying “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” adding that “it was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”
However, the controversy did not end there. Progressive media outlet The American Prospect found that Waltz’ Venmo account was still public at the time of the Signal controversy.
Roughly 10 minutes after requesting comment, Waltz’s Venmo account suddenly disappeared. Wired was the first media outlet to report on this development.
In a statement, National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt did damage control, noting that “NSA Waltz was previously a U.S. Congressman and Fox News contributor. He has relationships with people who work in media. There should be nothing surprising here.”
Waltz’s public Venmo account displayed a friend list of 328 individuals, which included journalists, government officials, military personnel, and lobbyists.
This list potentially included individuals with whom he may have engaged in financial transactions.
Fox News personalities feature prominently in Waltz’s contact list.
Notable names include:
- Griff Jenkins, a Washington-based national correspondent
- Brian Kilmeade, co-host of Fox & Friends
- Porter Berry, president and editor-in-chief of Fox News Digital
Other media figures in Waltz’s contacts include:
- Leland Vittert, a national correspondent for NewsNation
- Brianna Keilar, co-anchor of CNN News Central’s afternoon edition
- Lauren Peikoff, an executive producer at MSNBC
A particularly noteworthy contact is Judith Miller, formerly of The New York Times. Miller gained infamy for her early-2000s bogus reporting on the likelihood that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, which was largely based on information from Vice President Dick Cheney. Her erroneous reporting contributed to the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, and ultimately led to her dismissal from the newspaper.
The incident is not isolated, as other high-ranking officials like White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles also had public Venmo accounts with sensitive information.
After inquiries from media outlets, Waltz’s and other officials’ Venmo accounts were quickly set to private, raising questions about why these precautions weren’t taken earlier.
For Waltz, the matter did not end there. Investigative journalist Paul E. Sperry revealed that the national security advisor has a long history of donating to Republicans who are part of the neoconservative establishment, while not donating a cent to President Donald Trump.
NEW: FEC records for ex-Cheney aide Michael Waltz, now Trump's nat'l security adviser who "accidentally" leaked to The Atlantic, show he's contributed $8,150 to NeverTrumpers and zero $ to Trump:
Mitt Romney … $5,000
John McCain … $450
Jeb Bush … $2,700
Donald Trump … $0— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) March 26, 2025
Waltz is the 29th national security adviser, who previously served as representative of Florida’s 6th congressional district from 2019 to 2025.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
