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WASHINGTON — Ric Grenell, the embattled former executive director of the Kennedy Center, allegedly promised Turkish billionaire Turhan Mildon access to President Trump while reeling in an alleged $5.6 million donation to the performing arts venue that was never deposited.
The White House counsel’s office has been investigating Grenell for allegedly failing to provide the money to the center — after Mildon’s new bride, Alina Habba, directly told Trump during an Oct. 9 Oval Office meeting that her husband was duped into providing the funds.
“Once the money comes to the company here, I will arrange the donation to Kennedy Centre [sic], and you’ll be joining the VIP events and get close with the administration, even with POTUS,” Grenell allegedly wrote to Mildon in a May 3, 2025, text message first reported by Axios.
The $5.6 million donation allegedly was to be taken from a larger $17.6 million wire transfer from Mildon to the defense software company Texas Armament & Technology.
Grenell, a former US ambassador to Germany and Trump’s former acting intelligence director, reportedly denied sending the text message, pointing to the use of British English to spell “Centre.” He did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
However, a Post source said that Axios’ recounting of the text message is consistent with what they had heard about developments in the bizarre scandal.
Mildon has provided the White House with financial records for a May 29, 2025, wire transfer to the Texas company for $17.6 million. However, Axios reported the money came not from Mildon, but from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s “Ministère des Finances.”
The business deal involved the central African nation, both Axios and the New York Times reported Monday, though neither outlet specified the nature of the venture in the vast country, where Mildon said in 2024 he operated limestone quarries and copper, cobalt and gold mines.
Mildon and Habba reportedly met early this year at the Kennedy Center, which Trump has sought to rebrand to include his own name. They were married on Sept. 26.
Habba previously worked for Trump as his personal attorney, then briefly at the White House before serving as acting US attorney in New Jersey.
Grenell and Mildon reportedly interacted on other matters involving Venezuela when Grenell served as a Trump envoy to then-Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro. Mildon operates state-owned cement plants in the South American country.
After Maduro was captured by US troops on Jan. 3, interim president Delcy Rodriguez in June canceled Mildon’s contract to run those plants. The New York Times reported last week that Rodriguez paused her termination of Mildon’s contract after learning of his relationship with Habba.