Ohio senator JD Vance, 39, who has been selected as Donald Trump's running mate, uses Venmo like a true millennial. However, it appears he isn't very familiar with the app's latest privacy features.
Vance's open Venmo account uncovers not only his usual donut purchases, but also his extensive network, revealing ties with prominent GOP figures, affluent financiers, tech industry leaders, esteemed journalists, and fellow Yale Law alumni—the elites he often criticises.
A WIRED review of Vance's account, including his friends and their connections, revealed some odd and surprising relationships. Meanwhile, experts are concerned that the details exposed by the peer-to-peer payment app could facilitate stalking, trolling, and impersonation.
Public Venmo Account Reveals Vance's Extensive Network
Vance's friends list on Venmo boasts over 200 individuals, including Amalia Halikias, the government relations director at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that coordinates controversial initiatives.
Also included is an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, along with several other Department of Justice lawyers, often criticised by Trump loyalists as adversaries and part of the "deep state."
Additionally, Jeff Flake, the noted anti-Trump former Arizona senator and current ambassador to Turkey, appears on the list.
The list features lobbyists from organisations such as the Government Strategies Group, individuals associated with conservative think tanks like the Hoover Institution and the American Enterprise Institute, journalists and media figures like Bari Weiss and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and tech executives from Anthropic and AOL.
Lanny Davis, a prominent political operative and former lawyer for Trump critic Michael Cohen, is listed as a friend of Vance on Venmo, though he has denied this association. Davis also declined to confirm or deny whether the account in question belonged to him, which was additionally linked to someone named Michael Cohen.
This highlights a key caveat: being listed as friends on Venmo does not necessarily mean that two individuals have conducted transactions together or know that the app has classified them as friends.
When a user starts using the app, Venmo says, they are asked to grant it access to their phone contacts. Venmo will identify any contacts already on the app and automatically add them to the user's friend list if they consent.
Alternatively, users can add or remove friends manually. By default, both the user's transactions and friend list are public. This suggests that Vance's friend list was likely primarily formed by the contacts in his phone when he created his account in December 2016.
Vance's Venmo account was initially discovered by a law enforcement and extremism researcher who asked to remain anonymous due to security concerns. WIRED verified the authenticity of the senator's account by cross-referencing it with his wife, Usha Vance, who has played a significant role in supporting her husband's political career and his path to Catholicism.
The verification also included individuals involved in the 2020 film adaptation of his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. In total, Vance is directly connected to 211 people.
On Monday, Trump officially announced Vance, whose net worth is estimated to be $5 million, as his vice president, highlighting the increasing influence of the party's populist faction. Vance has often portrayed himself as anti-elite, expressing in Hillbilly Elegy that he feels "almost primal scorn" for members of the elite.
In an April post on X, Vance, a 2013 Yale Law School graduate, criticised "elite universities," describing them as "expensive day care centres for coddled children." His network predominantly consists of attorneys, many of whom earned their law degrees from Yale Law around the same period he did.
Vance's Venmo Activity Highlights Unexpected Associations
Despite his anti-elite rhetoric, Vance's connections reveal a more nuanced relationship with establishment figures. Concurrently, as the former president distances himself from Project 2025—a right-wing policy blueprint designed to overhaul the federal government and transform the executive branch into what critics describe as a Christian nationalist autocratic state—Vance's Venmo network indicates links not only to Halikias but also to others associated with a maximalist interpretation of MAGA.
For example, Gladden Pappin, president of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and a prominent figure in the intellectual wing of the far right, appears to be one of Vance's friends. Vance's office refused to comment on this story.
In an interview with Newsmax earlier this month, Vance acknowledged that the Project 2025 document contains both commendable ideas and those with which he disagrees. Still, he did not specify which ideas fall into each category. As of the publication time, Vance's Venmo account remains fully public.
Vance's friends each average 277 connections, reflecting a broad network. This extended circle includes accounts linked to notable political figures like Cohen, Nick Ayers, Todd Ricketts, and Michael Flynn Jr. and far-right figures such as Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe, Laura Loomer, and Ali Alexander.
"What you guys need to realise is that Vance is influenceable," wrote Andrew Torba on X. Torba, the founder of Gab—a social network known for attracting conspiracy theorists and Christian nationalists—has a history of promoting antisemitic content on his social media platforms.
"We have plenty of people in his orbit. Plenty of our guys can be put into positions of power because he's there." "This appears to be his actual personal contacts," says Jordan Libowitz, the vice president of communications for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
The information uncovered on Venmo, according to Libowitz, is far more personal than what is usually disclosed by campaigns through official channels, cautioning that "the more personal data that is public about someone, the more points of pressure or influence there are on that person."
From Routine Payments To Surprising Discoveries
A few of Vance's transactions are visible, and some appear quite ordinary, such as a payment to a staff member for doughnuts in January. However, WIRED also discovered the Venmo account of his former Senate campaign manager, Jordan Wiggins, which reveals a more detailed and occasionally surprising transaction history.
This includes over 50 payments dating back to 2015, with some descriptions such as "Back waxing & Happy Ending" and "adult movies." Although these entries likely represent inside jokes among friends, Wiggins did not respond to a request for comment.
Experts caution that the visibility of Vance's account might pose risks for the prominent individuals linked to it. "Access to anyone's social connections can reveal sensitive private information and expose them to security risks," Jennifer Lynch, general counsel at civil liberties nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation, tells WIRED.
Lynch points out that high-profile figures like Vance may be particularly vulnerable to social engineering attacks and impersonation. "If someone who is a candidate for vice president hasn't changed his privacy settings, I don't know how a company can expect the rest of us to stay on top of this."
This is not the first instance of a government official's Venmo account and friend list becoming publicly known. In 2017, Sean Spicer, a former press secretary to Trump, received numerous prank payments through the app. In 2021, the Daily Beast reported that US Representative Matt Gaetz had used Venmo to send funds to an individual later convicted of sex trafficking a minor. (WIRED also discovered that Gaetz is connected with at least five people on Vance's contact list).
"Venmo takes our customers' privacy very seriously, which is why we let customers choose their privacy settings—and we make it incredibly simple for customers to make their account private if they choose to do so," Venmo spokesperson Caitlin Girouard told WIRED in a statement.
