Ric Grenell allegedly offered a Turkish businessman access to the president for a Kennedy Center donation, and the White House counsel is checking whether the text is his. Grenell calls it lies.
The text is dated May 3, 2025: "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." Axios reviewed it. Grenell ran the Kennedy Center then. He denies sending it, and one piece of his defense, Axios's sources say, is the British spelling of "Centre."
Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon received it. He is married to Alina Habba, Trump's former lawyer, who walked into the Oval Office on Oct. 9 and said, "Ric stole the money!" Mildon says he wired $17.6 million at Grenell's direction to a Houston defense company, Texas Armament & Technology. The money came from Congo's finance ministry, not Mildon's account, a White House official said; the wire record, dated May 29, 2025, is on White House Counsel Will Scharf's desk. The Kennedy Center's books show a $270,000 pledge in his name, paid in full. "We're trying to find out whose money this is," a White House official said. Grenell says he "never received any payment from him at all."
The other question is why Grenell's name keeps turning up where Jared Kushner builds.
