Trump Reportedly Consulted Musk's Grok AI Before U.S. Operation in Venezuela
In a private December 2025 meeting, President Donald Trump spent hours questioning xAI’s Grok chatbot about public sentiment in Venezuela prior to the U.S. mission that captured Nicolás Maduro, according to a report from Time.
Trump Consulted Grok Weeks Before Maduro’s Capture
Roughly one month before U.S. forces entered Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump held a secret meeting with Elon Musk where he turned to Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, for geopolitical guidance, according to reporting from Time magazine.
The December 2025 meeting occurred approximately seven months after Musk departed his post in the Trump administration at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). During the session, Trump reportedly spent hours interacting with the xAI-developed system, pressing the model on how the Venezuelan populace would respond if their head of state were taken into custody.
From Boat Strikes to Predictions of Celebration
U.S. military operations involving Venezuela had begun ramping up months earlier. In September 2025, Trump ordered strikes on Venezuelan maritime vessels that his administration claimed were tied to illicit narcotics trafficking. Around that time, the public increasingly turned to Grok to inquire about the strikes and Venezuela’s political landscape, as reported by The Atlantic.
When Trump posed his questions directly to the chatbot in December, Grok characterized Maduro as a "deeply unpopular dictator and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall."
The U.S. conducted its invasion on January 3, successfully capturing Maduro. When public celebrations subsequently took place in Venezuela, a source told Time that Trump "came away thinking Grok was ingenious."
Deepening Defense Ties for xAI and Silicon Valley
The episode underscores the rapid integration of commercial frontier AI systems into U.S. military and strategic decision-making. In June 2026, the Pentagon’s head of AI disclosed that the U.S. military utilized a specialized version called "Gov Grok" to identify and strike targets during the Iran War.
Other top AI firms have maintained varying relationships with the Department of Defense. OpenAI has established an official agreement with the DoD, whereas Anthropic has engaged in protracted negotiations and public friction regarding the acceptable use of its systems for intelligence gathering and kinetic warfare.
Musk’s defense influence under the current administration continues to broaden beyond software deployments. Earlier this week, the Pentagon tapped Musk alongside Anduril founder Palmer Luckey to co-lead a comprehensive study evaluating how advanced commercial technologies are—and should be—applied on modern battlefields.
