Behind a White House Feud That Is Bitter Even by Trump-Era Standards
- Mildon and Grenell in a hissy fit over who swipes Hugo's gold first.
- Sex, lies, and audiotape? No, just a text about being the 'American face down in V.'
- Scharf gets the fun job of refereeing a kindergarten cage match.
- The Kennedy Center: now a venue for Venezuelan oil-theft opera.
Brief Summary
In the latest episode of 'As the Stomach Turns' inside the White House, two of the president's loyal attack dogs, Alina Habba Mildon and Richard Grenell, are trying to eat each other's lunch over the Venezuelan carcass. Habba, who recently married into Turkish oil money, stormed into the Oval Office to accuse Grenell of pocketing her husband's Kennedy Center donations, presumably while also trying to pocket Venezuela's oil revenue. Grenell, showing the diplomatic grace of a barroom brawler, dismissed it as absurd, though the text message evidence suggests someone was definitely trying to get 'down in V' for a cut. The real comedy is that Will Scharf, the White House counsel, has to play Solomon while these two grown adults throw tantrums over spoils that belong to the Venezuelan people, not the GOP donor class. It's a perfect metaphor for the administration: squabbling over a country's resources while pretending to care about democracy, with a side order of chaos that makes the Drudge Report look like the New York Times book review.
Why This Matters
If you believe that foreign policy is just a series of cocktail parties for the rich and powerful, this story is your proof. The real impact here isn't who wins the fundraiser squabble; it's that U.S. foreign policy in Venezuela is being shaped by who screamed loudest in the Oval Office about a missed kickback. For the average reader, this means your tax dollars and military might are being leveraged to settle personal grudges between billionaire cronies, while the actual Venezuelan people are left holding empty oil barrels. It's a reminder that whenever you hear 'national security interest,' it's often just code for 'my donor wants a piece.' So, if you don't like your politics being run like a reality TV show with global consequences, you might want to check who's on the guest list for the next coup.