The Trump White House is investigating controversial former Kennedy Center Director Ric Grenell over a missing multimillion-dollar donation.
The investigation stems from a bombshell accusation lodged by President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Alina Habba.
According to Axios, Habba privately told the president Friday that Grenell evidently never deposited a $5.6 million Kennedy Center donation from her billionaire husband, Turkish businessman and investor Turhan Mildon.
Grenell, who notoriously fired The Western Journal founder Floyd Brown from his role as Kennedy Center vice president of development last year because of his fierce criticisms of the LGBT movement, has denied the “absurd” allegations.
@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
Trump hesitantly ordered an investigation after learning late last week about Grenell’s alleged behavior. Grenell was ousted from the Kennedy Center in March.
Should the White House release the findings of the Grenell investigation publicly?
Yes, it’s a matter of public interest
82% (23 votes)
No, it’s an internal matter
7% (2 votes)
Only if serious wrongdoing is found
11% (3 votes)
“POTUS doesn’t want to deal with this,” a senior administration official told Axios. “Of course, he’s concerned. But if there is missing money, this is a big, big problem.”
Axios reported that in the spring of 2015, Grenell persuaded Mildon to include the $5.6 million Kennedy Center donation “in a lump-sum $17.6 million payment for a business deal involving a U.S. company.”
After Mildon made the alleged donation, according to the report, he didn’t initially check to determine whether it had actually been deposited. He just assumed it would be, because of the VIP treatment he’d customarily received at the renamed Kennedy Center.
According to Axios, the Kennedy Center was also where he met Habba in late 2025. Despite being friends with the couple, Grenell was “notably absent” from their lavish wedding last month. Plenty of other high-profile political figures reportedly were there.
The wedding video of Alina Habba, 42, Trump’s former attorney, and Turkish billionaire and Miller Holding CEO Turhan Mildon, 29, has finally dropped — giving a glimpse inside their seriously lavish, star-studded wedding at the Waldorf Astoria New York late last month. ✨ https://t.co/FXY5NezO7m
— HouseOfVanity (@HouseOfVanity88) October 7, 2026
Another senior administration official cautioned Axios that Habba’s accusations “are only allegations.”
“We don’t know if they’re true,” the official added. “This could be a misunderstanding.”
The New York Post reported three sources said “they doubt Habba’s claims.”
“A person close to the White House called Grenell ‘self-destructive’ but not ‘that dumb,’” the outlet reported.
Habba has told the White House she intends to hand over documentation proving everything she’d said to be true, but thus far, the documents haven’t been turned over.
“The White House counsel has asked for documents and proof. None has come so far,” a White House official confirmed with Axios.
It doesn’t help that Habba has reportedly changed her numbers, first telling the White House that her husband donated $17 million before backtracking and clarifying that it was just $5.6 million.
“This has been hard to track because numbers have changed,” the unnamed White House official told Axios.
However, Lisa Dale, who handled finances for the Kennedy Center at the time, confirmed to Axios that there is no record of the multimillion-dollar sum anywhere. She said there was only a record showing Mildon owed the center a $270,000 donation that he’d pledged.
“There was nothing about $6 million,” Dale said. “I would have heard about that.”
It’s not yet clear how the president will proceed, though Axios noted that if the allegations are proven true, it’s bound to deeply upset him.
“Those who know the president’s thinking say he is particularly disapproving of people who use his name or misuse positions he has given them,” Axios reported.
His abrupt call earlier this week for disgraced former Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign seems to indeed prove this true.
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