Friday it stood at 11. Monday it is 13.
12. Ric Grenell allegedly offered a Turkish businessman access to the president for a Kennedy Center donation. A text dated May 3, 2025, reviewed by Axios and now held by the White House counsel, told Turhan Mildon: "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." Grenell ran the Kennedy Center at the time. Mildon says he wired $17.6 million to a Houston company, Texas Armament & Technology, at Grenell's direction; the center's books show a $270,000 pledge in his name, paid in full on Oct. 13, four days after Habba went to the Oval Office. Grenell denies sending the text and calls the claims "lies" and "absurd": "I've never asked for one cent to be sent somewhere else pretending it was for the Kennedy Center." A source briefed on his thinking told Axios his denial rests on the spelling. He writes "Center." Trump ordered the inquiry after Mildon's wife, Alina Habba, walked into the Oval Office on Oct. 9; White House Counsel Will Scharf runs it.
Why it matters: the president's own lawyers are examining his envoy's price list, and two in three voters already say he uses the office to enrich himself.
