And the scandals keep coming: President Donald Trump’s close ally Ric Grenell, who has recently served as both special envoy to Venezuela and acting director of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, came under fire Monday for new evidence that he offered in a pay-to-play scheme with wealthy Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon. Mildon recently married former Trump attorney Alina Habba.
The accusations came to light on October 9, after Habba stormed into the Oval Office to tell the president that Grenell had never deposited a nearly $6 million donation her husband made to the Kennedy Center in 2025. Grenell and Mildon were in touch in early 2025, before Mildon and Habba met, because Mildon had business contracts in Venezuela and had also expressed interest in the Kennedy Center. According to documents from Mildon’s lawyers, Grenell offered to support Mildon in Venezuela, including making him the “American face down in V.”
Mildon eventually transferred $17.6 million to an account supplied by Grenell, purportedly for a deal involving a private Texas defense company and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the understanding that $5.6 million of that sum would end up at the Kennedy Center. But according to Habba, the $5.6 million never made it there.
White House counsel Will Scharf is now investigating the donation, including texts from Grennell supplied by Mildon’s lawyers.
“Once the money comes to the company here, I will arrange the donation to Kennedy Centre, and you’ll be joining the VIP events and get close with the administration, even with POTUS,” a May 3, 2025, text from Grennell to Mildon allegedly said.
Grenell has vehemently denied the accusations. “I’ve never asked for one cent to be sent somewhere else pretending it was for the Kennedy Center, and I’ve never received any payment from him at all,” Grenell told Axios, referring to Mildon. “Make him give proof to what he is saying, not make these absurd allegations.”
“There’s no way this is true. This is crazy,” Grenell allegedly told the president.
A source told Axios that Grenell claimed he would never use the British English spelling “centre,” rather than “center,” so the text could not be legitimate.
Kennedy Center staff went looking for Mildon’s donation last year, but never found it. Instead, financial staffer Lisa Dale found that Mildon actually owed the center a pledged donation of $270,000. “There was nothing about $6 million,” Dale told Axios. “I would have heard about that.”
“POTUS doesn’t want to deal with this. Of course, he’s concerned, but if there is missing money, this is a big, big problem,” said another official with knowledge of the conflict.
“Nobody wants to get in the middle of Alina Habba and Ric Grenell going to war,” a different official said.