Dave Portnoy is taking a rare stand against the Trump administration over the Signal scandal and leak of war plans to The Atlantic.
Amid this week’s latest political scandal, in which senior members of the Trump administration mistakenly included a journalist on a group text chat where they were actively planning a military strike in Yemen, the Barstool Sports founder has taken to social media to express disgust over what he sees as a “f*** up of epic proportions.”
Here’s a quick primer for those that keep themselves out of the political loop. On Monday, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a piece titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.” In the piece, Goldberg outlines how he was accidentally added to a Signal group by National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, that included several high-ranking Trump administration officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance. That group chat was subsequently used to plan a military strike against the Houthis in Yemen.
In the interest of protecting national security, Goldberg opted not to release the most sensitive information in his original piece, including exact details such as the timing of the strikes in Yemen. After several senior members of the Trump administration, including Waltz and Hegseth, spent Monday and Tuesday downplaying and denying that highly classified information was discussed in the Signal group, Goldberg released the exact texts on Wednesday morning.
That spurred Portnoy to post a six minute video on social media attacking the Trump administration and calling for accountability.
Portnoy, who has regularly praised President Donald Trump and supported him throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, made it clear that he believes the administration needs to take responsibility for such a flippant attitude towards national security.
“In this new administration, you want to take accountability,” Portnoy says. “Somebody has to go down. To me it’s Michael Waltz. 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. You can’t poo-poo it. You can’t downplay it. You have to sit up there and be like, ‘Holy shit. This is a f*** up of epic proportions. There will be accountability. I will get to the bottom of this.'”
Portnoy continued to single out National Security Advisor Michael Waltz as the one who should take the fall for the scandal as the person that added Goldberg to the Signal group chat.
“I don’t like calling for people’s heads, Michael Waltz, it seems like you’re the guy who added him to the group chat. You have to lose your job. You should step down. You can not be adding random people to a group chat with this sensitive, classified information,” Portnoy added.
“You have to stand up here and be like, ‘What a f*** up. I will demand answers, accountability, and heads,'” Portnoy continued. “There’s nothing being made up here. Jeffrey Goldberg is telling the truth. It’s obvious these texts are real. It’s obvious they’re classified. It’s obvious we gave away the strike information two hours before it happened. We’re lucky it didn’t cost the death of American military members. Somebody has to go down for this.”
Though many would likely disagree, Dave Portnoy sees himself as someone that is able to call balls and strikes, despite his outward support of the President. And this type of rant, where he directly criticizes the Trump administration, serves to advance his brand as being politically agnostic, much like the fans that Barstool Sports attracts.