One of the most viral responses to the Trump administration’s Signal chat debacle this week came not from a lawmaker or military expert, but from a man who rates pizza slices after taking a single bite.
“We are lucky it didn’t cause the death of American military members,” Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, said Wednesday in a video on X in which he called for the firing of national security adviser Michael Waltz. “Somebody has to go down for this.”
Portnoy interviewed President Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 election and publicly supported him in last year’s campaign. Portnoy’s irreverent persona and knack for connecting with sports fans, gamblers and other “bros” allowed him to serve as a conduit for Trump’s message to reach a key segment of the electorate he was laser-focused on.
But Portnoy’s six-minute, direct-to-camera video on X eviscerated Trump officials for inadvertently adding a prominent journalist, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, to a Signal app group chat in which they discussed plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen in the hours before launching strikes on March 16.
“It’s surreal that these guys added Jeffrey Goldberg to this group,” Portnoy said, adding: “And if this information somehow got out to the Houthis, and I assume in situations like this, things move at the speed of light, lots of American soldiers could have died, lives in jeopardy. So to me, a major, major, major glitch in intelligence and just a huge mistake.”
The video, which had been viewed more than 11.5 million times as of Friday afternoon, according to the social media site’s analytics, spread as widely as it did not only because of the content of Portnoy’s message, but also because of the platform and audience he wields.
Portnoy, who did not respond to a request for comment, is the dominant figure on one of the leading media and podcasting platforms favored by young men who have drifted rightward in recent years — an demographic that Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris fought for in the closing weeks of the 2024 election.
Leaders in both parties are watching this demographic closely ahead of the next election as they present new policy positions aimed at young men or are increasing engagement with the mostly apolitical podcasts they consume.
Given Portnoy’s credibility with those voters, Democrats were quick to promote his commentary while the White House declined to hit him back when given the chance.
“Dave is right on this,” former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, posted on X. “It’s not a left or right thing. This was a massive screwup and a real security failure. So why is the President, who used to fire people for fun on reality TV, not firing the people who made this mess?”
“Yeah, mistakes happen; this one can’t,” Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., posted to the platform. “Dave Portnoy knows you can’t share classified war plans in a Signal chat — yet somehow, the Trump administration’s top national security leaders don’t.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., told NBC News in a message that Portnoy was “100% right.”
And he “has credibility because he’s a calls-it-like-he-sees-it guy,” Swalwell, who similarly shared Portnoy’s post, added. “The case he made for firing these morons is the simplest but most pulverizing case I’ve heard yet. I think it’s a clear message of we are not all gaslightable.”
That Democrats would be promoting any commentary from Portnoy might be surprising. Left-leaning critics have called him sexist and misogynist, and he has denied sexual misconduct allegations against him.
After Trump won in November, Portnoy said he believed “Democrats gave us no choice” and that their campaign was centered on “pure arrogance” and “moral superiority.”
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has been critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the Signal controversy.Michael Hickey / Getty Images file
Trump’s performance with young men offered him a huge boost in several swing states as the campaign focused heavily on targeting low-propensity voters, the kind of less politically active voters who might be warm to Trump’s cultural arguments and consume Barstool content.
“Another moment of clarity from El Pres,” Tim Miller, a former spokesperson for 2016 GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush who has since become a leading figure at the anti-Trump publication The Bulwark, wrote on X. “By the way these barstool ‘bros’ are gettable for Dems if they don’t continue to perpetuate the impression that they hate them. worth a try!”
An NBC News poll this month found that 53% of men between 18 and 49 view Trump favorably, an increase from the 47% who said so in NBC News’ November survey.
“I certainly don’t agree with some of the things he has said on various issues, or his approach or tact sometimes, but Dave has a very commonsense, straightforward way of looking at things that doesn’t fit into a partisan box and that many people share,” Chris Meagher, a former White House and Pentagon spokesperson during President Joe Biden’s administration, said. “Our national security and the safety of our troops should be a nonpartisan issue and more people from both political parties, and people from no party at all, should be speaking out about it.”
Portnoy’s commentary was notable enough that a reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about it during Wednesday’s press briefing. She said she has “great respect” for the media personality and businessman before deferring to a previous answer she gave on the administration’s handling of the Signal chat fallout.
“No concerns!” Leavitt told NBC News on Thursday when asked if the White House was worried by Portnoy’s pushback. She added that she was unaware of anyone at the White House contacting Portnoy either in recent weeks or following his criticism.
One Trump ally, meanwhile, talked up the importance of Portnoy’s remarks.
“Oh, I think it matters a lot,” this person said, pointing to Portnoy’s audience and platform. “Not to Trump, but to his staff and people around him.”
That’s also in no small part because of how Portnoy’s own brand of populism, and that of Barstool, has been credited with helping reorient the GOP away from the “Moral Majority” of the Reagan era and into the more new-age conservative movement that Trump has fostered. The National Review, New York Times, Politico and other publications have all written extensively on what has been broadly described as “Barstool conservatism.”
Adding to the intrigue, Portnoy’s comments on Wednesday were not the first critical remarks he’s made of Trump’s administration, while other content creators on his platform have similarly taken issue with elements of Trump’s agenda.
During an appearance on Fox Business last month, Portnoy criticized billionaire executive Elon Musk, who is overseeing Trump’s reorganization of the federal government and heads Tesla, X and SpaceX, as Tesla’s stock slid.
“So I’m a big stockholder of Tesla and I certainly raise my eyebrows,” Portnoy said. “I like DOGE. I like what they’re doing. But let me tell you this. If you’re going to send out — and you got to call it both ways — if you’re going to send emails to federal workers and say, ‘What have you done for the last five days?’ I think Tesla shareholders are entitled to ask their CEO, Elon Musk, ‘What have you done for Tesla the last five days?’ I mean, it’s seemingly all he cares about right now is DOGE.”
In that interview, Portnoy said he was offered a job in Trump’s Commerce Department but would have had to hand over the reins at Barstool Sports if he accepted. The Commerce Department did not respond to a request for comment seeking clarity on the job offer Portnoy mentioned.
“I’m a very simple man,” Portnoy said in the Fox Business interview. “I like a lot of things. I like when my stocks are going up and my wallet’s getting fatter. Right now it’s going the reverse way. So you start raising an eye. But overall, I’m happy. … [Trump is] doing exactly what he said he was going to do.”
Speaking Thursday on Barstool’s “Unnamed” podcast, Portnoy said his father messaged him to say Portnoy “gained a lot of credibility” with his take on the Signal chat fallout. He was later confronted with Leavitt’s comment from Wednesday’s press briefing.
“Great respect,” Portnoy said. “You know they like me when they won’t trash me.”
