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In recent years, the public Venmo accounts of government officials have brought on a string of awkward news stories for a congressman, a Supreme Court justice, and even the sitting U.S. president. But despite those cautionary tales, Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance has become the latest politician to let his public contacts on the payment app pop up in headlines.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, WIRED<\/em> published a detailed analysis<\/a> of Vance\u2019s 211 public Venmo connections.\u00a0Among them was Amalia Halikias, government relations director at the Heritage Foundation, which is the organization orchestrating the controversial Project 2025 plan to stack a new Republican administration with conservative loyalists.<\/p>\n Just because two people are connected on Venmo doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ve exchanged payments, but the contact highlights Vance\u2019s ties to the Heritage Foundation<\/a>. The Ohio senator has given speeches at the organization and voiced support a policy similar to the one outlined in Project 2025 to restaff the federal government. Following Vance\u2019s VP nomination, the head of the foundation, Kevin Roberts, told reporters<\/a> that \u201cprivately, we were really rooting for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats have honed in their attacks on Project 2025, calling it proof of the radical policies that would be implemented in a second Trump term.\u00a0For their part, the former president has begun distancing himself from it, and Vance clarified his support for the project shortly before his nomination, saying the plan had \u201csome good ideas,\u201d but also that \u201cmost importantly, it has no affiliation with the Trump campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n Since joining the Senate, Vance has built his politics around populist rhetoric mirroring that of the former president, and he\u2019s been a harsh critic of elite universities, proposing legislation to ban consideration of race in college admissions as well as cracking down on encampments on campus. In a post on social media in April, Vance said, \u201cElite universities have become expensive day care centers for coddled children,\u201d adding that they \u201cno longer serve a useful function.\u201d<\/p>\n Elite universities have become expensive day care centers for coddled children. <\/p>\n It’s time to tax university endowments aggressively. They no longer serve a useful social function, so they shouldn’t get taxpayer subsidies.<\/p>\n \u2014 J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) April 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n But Vance\u2019s contact list on Venmo paints a more intricate relationship with the establishment and elite institutions than he has recently indicated. The senator himself graduated from Yale Law, and many people in his Venmo network are other graduates of the same prestigious school, according to WIRED<\/em>.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Vance declined to comment on the record for this story. The Heritage Foundation didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n For years, privacy advocates have criticized Venmo features that create a social-media aspect to personal financial information. When a new user enters the app, it asks permission to access their phone contacts, which can then sync those numbers to a \u201cfriend\u201d list on the app. What\u2019s more, friend lists and payment histories on Venmo are public by default, and have to be made private by the user.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vance isn\u2019t the first politician to generate headlines for a public Venmo account. In 2018, the Daily Beast<\/em> reported<\/a> that far-right congressman Matt Gaetz sent an accused sex offender $900 on the app, who then sent three women separate payments equalling the same amount. Gaetz\u2019s office declined to comment on the story, and he was never charged with a crime.<\/p>\n\n