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Administration officials say the text is a key piece of evidence in the White House's investigation " ordered by President Trump " into whether Grenell abused the president's trust and misappropriated a potential multimillion-dollar donation to the Kennedy Center, which Grenell led at the time.

Grenell also served in another Trump-appointed capacity: as special envoy to Venezuela, where Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon also had contracts. "We need to make you the 'American face' down in V," Grenell allegedly wrote in the same 2025 text message to Mildon, whose attorneys sent the text, at least one financial document and other correspondence to the White House counsel's office, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Mildon is married to another Trump adviser: former U.S. attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba, who stormed into the Oval Office on Oct. 9 and accused Grenell of hoodwinking her husband into making a Kennedy Center donation that never arrived, Axios first reported.