Elephant in the room - I know the photo has nothing to do with the post. BUT it makes me laugh and so here we are,
To the topic at hand: Venmo.
Let's all go back in time to happier times, when Joe Biden was President and Matt Gaetz was caught making payments on Venmo to women for sex (reportedly).
Well, apparently Republicans have still never learned about how valuable it is to make your friends list PRIVATE. Not just so you can pay for sex, but so your friends won't be susceptible to blackmail or being honeytrapped because they know you! Personally!
Wired is reporting that numerous White House high level cabinet members have venmo accounts WITH public friends list.
First up, Signalgate leader, Mike Waltz. Profile photo is a match. He is also the National Security Advisor. Well, his account was left PUBLIC until Wednesday, when a Wired reporter contacted him to ask about it. When they reviewed his friends list, it showed "the names of hundreds of Waltz’s personal and professional associates, including journalists, military officers, lobbyists, and others—information a foreign intelligence service or other actors could exploit for any number of ends, experts say."
oops.
Linked to Waltz is Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and Walker Barrett, a staffer on the United States National Security Council. Both were also on the most non-secure classified war plan briefing call of all time.
Gosh, it looks like these people are ALL idiots.
Susie Wiles friend list is ripe with contacts for high level administration officials from both Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0,m including Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, and Hope Hicks, Trump’s former White House communications director.
After Wired reached out about this ridiculous oversight, both Waltz and Wiles changed their Venmo privacy settings.
A reminder, in July, Wired ALSO told J.D. Vance that HIS account was public, disclosing his connection to all the Project 2025 organizers, many DOJ officials and far-right media personalities. Oh, and Vance was also on Signalgate. Shocking, I know.
Hegseth also had a public Venmo account. I KNOW. We are all shocked. It also showed a similar public network of contacts. Since Wired told them about it, both Vance and Hegseth deleted their accounts.
I guess no one learned from Gaetzgate.
