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Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy didn’t mince words about the Trump administration’s “f–k up of epic proportions” when top brass inadvertently shared sensitive plans to strike the Houthis with the top editor of Atlantic magazine.
Portnoy, 48, cut a video message to President Trump, whom he backed in the 2024 election, insisting that heads should roll among the administration’s top brass over the Signal scandal, which he argued can’t be glossed over.
“Trump, you may love Michael Waltz,” Portnoy said, addressing Trump specifically in a video posted on social media. “You love Pete Hegseth. You may love these guys. Somebody has to go down.”
“To me, it’s Michael Waltz,” he added. “He’s the one who added him to this conversation. But you can’t have the top of the top security people in the United States — with the most sensitive information in the world — adding random editors of a magazine that hates Trump’s guts to a group chat talking about an attack before it happens on a terrorist group.”
National security adviser Mike Waltz had added Atlantic magazine editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a private, encrypted Signal chat named “Houthi PC Small Group” where they deliberated over plans to attack the Yemen-based terrorist group.
There were 18 high-level officials — including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and others — in the Signal chat.
At one point, Hegseth laid out detailed plans in the chat to strike Houthi targets, giving Goldberg a roughly two-hour heads-up before the military operation ensued.
Waltz has since denied knowing Goldberg, despite the two being photographed together several years ago, and has been adamant that “I don’t text him, he wasn’t on my phone.” Waltz has even implied that he was faced with a situation where he had Goldberg’s “number on someone else’s contact.”
Amid the growing firestorm, Trump has stood by Waltz and all of his top deputies — at least for now. Publicly, Trump said that he doesn’t think Waltz should apologize and praised him for “doing his best.”
But Portnoy countered that this scandal can’t be glossed over so easily.
“You can’t pooh-pooh it. You can’t downplay it. You have to sit up there and be like, ‘Holy s–t. This is a f–k up of epic proportions. There will be accountability. I will get to the bottom of this,’” the sports guru stressed.
Goldberg has long been an outspoken critic of Trump, and the president had long railed against him. Portnoy argued that the president has good reason to be hostile toward the Atlantic, which he bashed as one of the “heavy left-leaning media organizations.”
“I hate them. Trump hates them. They hate Trump. They probably hate me,” Portnoy said.
“Listen, we’ve all texted the wrong person. We are not the secretary of defense, we are not the national security advisor, we are not the vice president of the United States.
“Yeah, mistakes happen. This one can’t.”
After the bombshell Atlantic piece about the leaked Signal chat came out, Hegseth quickly sniped at Goldberg, telling reporters he was a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist.”
The Pentagon boss also claimed that “nobody was texting war plans,” something top White House officials later doubled down on Wednesday after the Atlantic published the full message from Hegseth, which revealed he gave a timeline of plans to strike the Houthis on March 15.
“Pete Hegseth’s immediate reaction, is like, ‘No, that never happened. We didn’t leak any classified information. No classified information in there,’” Portnoy chided, noting that “lots of American soldiers could have died” if the Houthis got those details.
On Wednesday, The Post’s Steven Nelson asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about Portnoy’s scathing critique of the president.
“Great respect for Dave Portnoy,” Leavitt said before brushing his assessment aside.
The National Security Council is conducting an investigation into the leak. Waltz is in charge of staff at the NSC. Additionally White House adviser Elon Musk’s team is slated to assist in the probe, per Leavitt.
Portnoy posted his critique of Trump shortly after the Atlantic released its follow-up story Wednesday featuring the specific message Hegseth sent regarding the strike timeline.
“Guess what? It’s super sensitive. It’s super-classified,” Portnoy charged.
Top Trump administration officials have quibbled over whether the message actually featured classified material.
“It’s surreal that these guys added Jeffrey Goldberg to this group chat. I mean, they were talking about the attack, leading up to the attack, all the way to a couple hours — when they’re going to do it, the time, the weather, you name it,” Portnoy said.
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