Trumpworld erupts with 'MAGA blood feud' over missing money

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House for Florida, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 20, 2026.

On Wednesday, new reporting revealed that President Donald Trump has directed White House lawyers to look into allegations that his former advisor stole funds intended for the Kennedy Center. According to one senior official who spoke with Axios Senior Political Reporter Marc Caputo, the situation has resulted in a full-blown "MAGA blood feud."

"Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago, according to four senior administration officials and three insiders briefed on the controversy," writes Caputo. "In the spring of 2025, Grenell persuaded [Habba's husband Turhan] Mildon to include a multimillion-dollar Kennedy Center donation in a lump-sum $17.6 million payment for a business deal." According to sources, the donation itself was nearly $6 million, but Habba says it was never deposited with the Center. While a senior administration official cautions that so far "these are only allegations," Habba's attorneys plan to give the White House documentation — reviewed by Axios — to support her claims.

"Mildon and Habba, the sources said, discovered the issue after their business relationship frayed with Grenell," writes Caputo. "Habba then headed to the White House last Friday to tell the president about the situation. 'Alina hit the roof' when her husband told her that he hadn't donated the money directly to the Kennedy Center, whose records indicate that Mildon actually owed a $270,000 pledged donation. There was no record of Mildon giving anything close to $5.6 million, officials said." According to Lisa Dale, who handled finances for the Kennedy Center at the time, the only record in her books connected to Mildon showed he owed $270,000. "There was nothing about $6 million," she told Axios. "I would have heard about that." If Habba's allegations of missing money are true, says Caputo, it could prove particularly galling to Trump, who views the center and its fundraising personally.

In the words of one Trump insider, "This is the ultimate MAGA blood feud." Habba and Grenell were both part of Trump's first administration, with the latter serving as Trump's ambassador to Germany and then his acting director of national intelligence, while Habba was Trump's private attorney and briefly was U.S. attorney in New Jersey. According to Caputo, "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. His dismissal Tuesday of Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle was the latest reminder of that. Twotop Trump world figures being engaged in such a bitter feud adds to the complexity." As one official noted, "Nobody wants to get in the middle of Alina Habba and Ric Grenell going to war."

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