 "After Signal-gate, Mike Waltz leaves his Venmo account public. Is this another security breach?")
It’s assumed when you are appointed as the US national security adviser, you will be informed of security protocols and the importance of keeping your data away from the public eye. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case for Trump’s National Security Adviser — Mike Waltz.
Even as the White House continued to downplay the Signal leak — where the editor of The Atlantic was added to a group chat in which confidential plans to bomb Yemen’s Houthis were being discussed — Wired, an American magazine, has discovered yet another security fail which involves Waltz : he left his Venmo account open to the public, revealing his 328-person friend list.
And it’s not just Waltz. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles also left her Venmo account public. Interestingly, the accounts only switched to private when Wired sent a request for comment to the White House about the accounts.
So, what’s going on? Here’s the full story.
Waltz’s Venmo account public
On Wednesday (March 26), Wired published a report — ‘Mike Waltz left his Venmo friends list public — in which the magazine reported that an account bearing the name Michael Waltz and his photo was visible to the public until Wednesday afternoon.
The account under Waltz’s name included a 328-person friend list, some of them belonging to colleagues of his in the Trump administration as well as other well-reputed personalities in the United States. Politicians such as Dan Crenshaw, a Republican Congressman from Texas, and journalists Bret Baier and Brian Kilmeade from Fox News, were among the many on Waltz’s Venmo friend list.
Noted conspiracy theorist Ivan Raiklin, who calls himself the “the secretary of retribution” and once created a deep state target list, was also among the 328 people on Waltz’s friend list.
US President Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles also featured on Waltz’s list — her account was also public. Her friend list had names like Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and Hope Hicks, former White House communications director.
Why Waltz’s public Venmo account matters
Many may be thinking what’s the big deal in the US national security adviser having his account public on Venmo. And the answer to that is manifold.
Firstly, it comes in the backdrop of Signal-gate ; Waltz told Fox News that he takes “full responsibility” for adding The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat on Signal, giving him access to war plans being discussed on a strike on the Houthis in Yemen.
The security breach, which rocked Washington this week, has led to Democrats calling for Waltz and the US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, who shared timings of forthcoming air strikes and their results, to resign .
While Trump has stood by his national security adviser, public opinion is not favourable to Waltz. A YouGov poll found that 74 per cent of voters consider the security lapse a very serious or somewhat serious problem. That includes 60 per cent of Republicans.
Beyond Signal-gate too, this Venmo issue matters. There’s the security of it all. As experts explained apart from the high-profile names that appeared on Waltz’s Venmo account, there were many ordinary people too.
These are the people, low-level connections, that spies look at for basic information, such as a doctor could reveal an illness. In the world of security, experts call them ‘soft targets’— people who have access but aren’t protected.
Tara Lemieux, a 35-year veteran of the US intelligence community including the National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, and supporting agencies, speaking to Wired said, “Public transactions on Venmo might appear harmless, but foreign intelligence services — particularly signals intelligence agencies — look for patterns: who’s paying whom, how often, and when.
“Say they’re making payments to their children — now you have a point of leverage. If there’s someone out there looking to target you, they can use that information and start making you feel fearful for the safety of your children.”
Mike Yeagley, a specialist in commercial data and its security risks, also spoke of the dangers of a public Venmo account in the same Wired report. “What’s the risk of someone at the Cabinet level using Venmo to pay their personal trainer? On the surface, it doesn’t look like much.
“But now I know who that trainer is — or the gardener, or whoever — and suddenly I’ve expanded my ability to target by identifying the people around that official.”
Yeagley added, “Our adversaries are sophisticated and carnivorous in their data collection,” which means that “just the smallest bit of daylight is of interest to someone sophisticated. They will use that data point. They will build from it.”
Also, the issue raises questions about Waltz’s capabilities and judgement. As Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, wrote on 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.”
Also, as Wired reported it suggests that “the Signal group chat is not an isolated mistake, but part of a broader pattern of what national security experts describe as reckless behaviour by some of the most powerful people in the US government.”
Venmo’s past controversies
But what exactly is Venmo? Owned by PayPal, it is a platform that allows individuals to send money to friends, family members, and others quickly and conveniently.
It was in 2021 that Venmo introduced the option of hiding one’s friends list after Buzzfeed found former US President Joe Biden on the app, exposing its security risk.
Surprisingly, Waltz isn’t the first in Trump’s Cabinet to leave his Venmo account public. Last July, Wired also reported that US Vice President JD Vance had left his Venmo account public, revealing a contacts list including members of the infamous right-wing Project 2025 , government officials, former Yale contemporaries, and far-right media figures.
And this February, it was reported that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Venmo account was publicly viewable, with the American Prospect reporting that his friend’s list was a who’s who of Washington bigwigs, defence contractors, and healthcare executives.
Both Vance’s and Hegseth’s Venmo accounts have since been deleted.
With inputs from agencies
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