Mike Waltz, the United States national security adviser, left his Venmo friend list public, leaving sensitive information open for bad actors to exploit.
A Venmo account linked to US national security adviser Mike Waltz was left open to the public. Waltz’s Venmo “friend list” was openly accessible to anyone who wished to see it.
Not only was it left unsecured, but the list contained various familiar faces, including other US politicians, journalists, military officers, and other high-profile characters.
According to the review conducted by Wired, Waltz’s list of friends includes the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and a staffer on the United States National Security Council, Walker Barrett.
Wired reviewed the exposed Venmo account under Waltz’s name and found that 328 people were “friends” with the account linked to the national security adviser.
On Venmo, your “friends” are basically your contact list that allows you to transfer money to others easily.Don
According to Wired other accounts on Waltz’s supposed friend list are media figures like Bret Baier and Brian Kilmeade of Fox News and Brianna Keilar and Kristen Holmes of CNN.
Other infamous names include retired Army reservist and self-appointed “secretary of retribution” Ivan Raiklin, US representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas, Christian Brose, the president of the defense technology company Anduril, and many more.
Upon further investigation, the media outlet found another account linked to Wiles, who had roughly 182 friends on her Venmo list.
This contained names like US Attorney General Pam Bondi and Hope Hicks, former public relations advisor and political executive for President Donald Trump’s first term.
While no transaction information was publicly available, experts say that this information is still highly sensitive, as bad actors could easily pretend to be members of Waltz’s contact list.
Michael Ard, a former intelligence analyst and professor at Johns Hopkins University, told Wired that it would be incredibly easy for someone to spoof one of Waltz’s contacts, which could then be used in espionage efforts, scams, or other nefarious activities.
While this has been revealed, the German news outlet Der Spiegel found the mobile phone numbers, email addresses, and even some passwords belonging to top US officials in the Trump administration.
According to the outlet, those affected include Mike Waltz, Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, and secretary of defense Pete Hegseth.
A bad week for the White House
Editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffery Goldberg, was added to a secret Signal group chat containing top US cabinet officials who were discussing their upcoming attacks on Yemen.
Goldberg was accidentally added to a top-secret Signal group chat where top US officials were discussing upcoming US strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15th, 2025.
The journalist received detailed war plans, including information about targets, weapons packages, and attack sequencing, hours before the actual strikes commenced.
The group had 18 individuals listed. Among them, Goldberg identified MAR (presumably the Secretary of State Marco Antonio Rubio), JD Vance, TG (an acronym for Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence), and Scott B (likely Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent). One account seemed to match Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Ratcliffe. There were other various National Security Council officials.
“I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling,” Goldberg’s article reads.
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