NYT Reports Trump Angry Over Habba's $50 Million Venezuela Deal and Questions Husband's Age

The New York Times reported this week that President Trump erupted after learning that his former lawyer Alina Habba Mildon had secured a contract worth more than $50 million to work for a billionaire Venezuelan family. According to the Times, Trump told aides and allies she should donate part of the money to his future presidential library or another cause. The deal follows a dispute with Trump ally Ric Grenell over whether money from the Democratic Republic of Congo reached the Kennedy Center. On Saturday, October 31, the Times also reported that Habba's husband, Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon, is 25, not the 29 usually reported. The paper cited former classmates and a US visa and Turkish passport page listing his birth date as December 2, 2000. Habba is 42, and the couple married in New York in September, months after meeting. The reason for the age discrepancy is unclear. The Daily Mail said it asked Mildon's firm, Miller Holding, and Habba for comment.

The right-leaning Daily Mail leads with the husband's age. Its headline calls him a "boytoy," stresses that he was engaged to another woman last year and notes the 17-year gap. It adds his grandfather's Turkish energy background and the Kennedy Center donation drama, and it shows no sign of the Trump-demand story. The left-leaning MS NOW and Talking Points Memo lead with Trump wanting a cut of Habba's payday. MS NOW frames it as Trump expecting a share of money earned in his orbit. TPM is opinionated: it uses a Goodfellas comparison, calls the feud a "grifter war," links the deal to the division of Venezuela's spoils, and speculates that Grenell leaked the figure. Both sides lean on the Times and name the Kennedy Center. They differ in focus: the right on the couple's personal details, the left on Trump and the money. Alternative outlets had not reported this story at the time of writing, while left- and right-leaning outlets had.