Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy said President Donald Trump should not have downplayed the issue of members of his Cabinet sharing attack plans in a Signal group chat.

More messages, which The Atlantic‘s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was included in, were released Wednesday, including sensitive information on a U.S. attack on Houthi targets in Yemen. The Trump administration has insisted the discussions, involving Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other senior officials, were not classified.

Why It Matters

Portnoy is a well-known Trump supporter, claiming he was recently approached to join the White House earlier this year if he gave up leading Barstool Sports. While not a central figure in the MAGA movement, he does speak to an audience that may not engage with traditional political news outlets.

What To Know

“The reaction of Pete Hegseth and President Trump has been kind of to poo-poo it,” Portnoy said in a video on X, formerly Twitter, telling his followers that this was not how to respond to a potential security breach.

Prefaced with an “incoming political rant,” Portnoy’s video outlined the story that has played out over the past few days involving Goldberg’s apparent accidental admission to the Signal chat by national security adviser Mike Waltz on March 11.

Over the next few days, conversations about the strike against the Houthis, who have been launching attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea for over a year, unfolded.

Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also participated in the group chat. The president and others denied any sensitive or classified information had been included in the chats to which the editor was privy.

“Trump is like, ‘How did Jeffrey Goldberg get in there? Did he hack it? He didn’t stay very long. The Atlantic is a horrible organization and a terrible magazine,'” Portnoy said in his video. “‘They are, I hate them.’

“By the way, if Jeffrey Goldberg, he didn’t hack it, he got added, but if he did hack it, that’s almost more dangerous that if somebody like Jeffrey Goldberg, if he can act the most sensitive, sensitive group chats, what are our enemies doing?”

The group chat has prompted bipartisan calls for those involved to resign or be fired by Trump. The administration now faces a lawsuit over allegedly violating the Federal Records Act by using the app to discuss attack plans.

While Trump initially dismissed the story, he has since taken a stronger stance, reportedly calling Waltz “so stupid” for the mistake. Waltz took responsibility for Goldberg’s inclusion but said the editor’s number was added incorrectly. No one has lost their job so far over the matter.

“Trump, I get being loyal to your people. I don’t like firing people on innocent mistakes that they make,” Portnoy said. “In this new administration, you want to take accountability. Trump, you may love Mike Waltz, you love Pete Hegseth, you may love these guys. Somebody has to go down.”

Portnoy echoed other criticism that top-level U.S. leaders dealing with sensitive information should not be adding “random editors” to their group chat and not be noticing.

“This is a mistake that cannot happen twice. It cannot happen once!” Portnoy said.

What People Are Saying

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Wednesday on X: “So, let’s me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information.”

President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday: “There was no classified information, as I understand it, they used an app if you want to call it an app. That’s an app that a lot of people us.”

Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said Tuesday: “If this information had gotten out, American lives could have been lost. If the Houthis had this information they could reposition their defensive systems.”

Timothy Snyder, a history professor at Yale University and frequent Trump critic, on X: “These guys inherited one of the most functional state apparatus in the history of the world and they are inhabiting it like a crack house.”

What Happens Next

Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe faced Congress Wednesday morning, with one Democrat telling them that the U.S. could have been mourning dead pilots if the information had gotten into the wrong hands.

Scrutiny will likely continue, with pressure growing for action from the White House to hold someone accountable.