POTUS Wants Answers: Kennedy Center Chaos as Ric Grenell Accused of Selling White House Access, $5.6 Million 'Donation' Allegedly Missing
A burgeoning scandal involving former Kennedy Center Director Ric Grenell and a missing multimillion-dollar donation appears to have just gotten significantly worse for the embattled diplomat.
The controversy erupted last week after President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Alina Habba, alleged to him that Grenell never deposited a $5.6 million Kennedy Center donation from her billionaire husband, Turkish businessman and investor Turhan Mildon.
According to a new bombshell report from Axios, the White House has since been made aware of text messages allegedly sent by Grenell in which he offered Mildon exclusive VIP access to the president in exchange for money.
Grenell, for his part, has already denied everything in posts published to the social media site X:
@axios It’s an absurd claim. 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. Make him give proof to what he is saying, not make these absurd allegations.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) October 14, 2026
“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,” one text message allegedly sent by Grenell on May 3, 2025, read.
According to the new allegations against Grenell, he also exploited his prior position as special envoy to Venezuela to try to appeal to Mildon, who reportedly also had contracts in that region.
“We need to make you the ‘American face’ down in V,” Grenell added in his text message to the Turkish businessman.
Mildon confirmed to Axios that Grenell had him wire a total of $17.6 million to a company called Texas Armament & Technology. The majority of the money was earmarked for a defense deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo, while $5.6 million was supposed to go to the renamed Kennedy Center.
The problem is that the Kennedy Center allegedly never received the money.
“It would be 17 months before Mildon learned that the Kennedy Center never received the money that he thought was included in the wire he sent at Grenell’s direction,” according to Axios.
Meanwhile, Grenell has continued to deny everything, including that he sent the previously mentioned text messages to Mildon. As proof, he noted to Axios that the messages referred to the Kennedy Center as the Kennedy “Centre,” which is how British people — not Americans — typically spell it.
“There’s no way this is true. This is crazy,” Grenell reportedly told Trump after the president phoned him about the controversy last week.
Grenell also issued a denial to The New York Times: “Responding to questions from The New York Times, Mr. Grenell denied all accusations, calling them absurd,” the paper reported.
Grenell’s allies have also come to his defense by questioning “everything from Mildon’s background as a businessman to his associates, his age (he’s 29 but some records indicate he’s 25) and his $10 million wedding last month to Habba, 42,” as reported by Axios.
White House Counsel Will Scharf is now reportedly investigating the new findings, including the text messages. According to Axios, he plans to “verify the digital footprint of the 2025 text.”
One of Axios’ sources seemed to suggest the evidence doesn’t look good for Grenell, as “a printout of the [2025 text] message has the same image of Grenell that appears on his smartphone contact card display.”
One unnamed administration official who spoke with Axios also seemed to think that things look bad for Grenell.
“Here’s where Alina might be telling the truth: Mildon did get access,” the official said. “So why did he get access? Was he doing business in Congo with Ric? Why so much access if the contribution was never paid?”
Grenell stepped down from his role as Kennedy Center director in March, months after he fired The Western Journal’s founder, Floyd Brown, from his role as vice president of development at the institution.
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