MAGA Blood Feud Takes New Twist After Top Trump Goon's Text Leaks

Kevin Lamarque / REUTERS A leaked text message from a Trump loyalist has heated up a simmering MAGA feud.

Richard Grenell, the U.S.

Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions, allegedly outlined a pay-to-play scheme in a text message to a Turkish billionaire last year, according to a bombshell Axios report.

The text is now being investigated by White House counsel as Grenell, 60, faces accusations of failing to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation to the Kennedy Center, which he led until March.

The allegations were made by former Trump lawyer Alina Habba, 42, and her husband, Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon, who publicly gives his age as 29 but is listed as 25 in U.S. documents and British corporate records.

“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 said in a May 3, 2025 text reviewed by Axios.

In the same message, Grenell told Mildon, “We need to make you the ‘American face’ down in V.” The text referenced Venezuela, where Mildon has business ties.

Grenell also serves as special envoy to the embattled South American nation.

The text, a financial document, and other correspondence have been sent to the White House counsel’s office, sources told Axios, as President Donald Trump seeks to settle a feud between two of his loyalists.

Grenell denied sending the text message and blasted the accusations against him as “lies.” Grenell, the State Department, and Capitol Media Partners, a firm he founded, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

The saga stems from Habba’s accusation that her husband followed Grenell’s instructions to transfer $17.6 million to Texas firm TX-AT in May 2025, $5.6 million of which was supposed to go to the Kennedy Center—but the funds never arrived at the storied cultural institution.

A furious Habba stormed into the Oval Office earlier this month to target Grenell, according to accounts in Axios and The New York Times .

Trump ordered White House counsel to investigate the matter shortly after.

“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,” Grenell told The Times.