Trump Consulted Musk's Grok AI Before Venezuela Raid, Report Says

A Time report detailed by TechCrunch reveals the president questioned xAI's model on regime change ahead of military intervention, as the Pentagon deepens ties with defense tech vendors.

By The Company WireOctober 1, 2026 at 9:08 PM UTC3 min read

xAI — Trump Consulted Musk's Grok AI Before Venezuela Raid, Report Says. Photo: TechCrunch AI.

President Donald Trump held a private meeting with Elon Musk in December 2025 during which he spent hours querying xAI's Grok chatbot about foreign policy decisions, according to a report from Time magazine cited by TechCrunch AI (https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/01/musks-ai-chatbot-grok-reportedly-encouraged-trump-to-capture-venezuelas-president/). The meeting took place roughly one month before U.S. forces entered Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro, and about seven months after Musk departed his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

During the session, Trump asked Grok how the Venezuelan public would react to the capture of their president, a source told Time. The interaction followed military actions started in September 2025, when Trump began ordering strikes on Venezuelan vessels that the administration alleged were involved in drug trafficking. In response to inquiries about the political climate, Grok reportedly characterized Maduro as a deeply unpopular dictator whose downfall would likely be celebrated by many Venezuelans.

Following the U.S. invasion on January 3 and the subsequent capture of Maduro, celebrations did occur, leaving Trump with the impression that Grok was ingenious, according to Time's source.

The account highlights the expanding presence of commercial artificial intelligence in military strategy. In June, the Pentagon's head of AI stated that the military deployed Gov Grok to select and strike targets during the Iran War. Other major AI labs maintain varying postures with defense officials: OpenAI holds a formal agreement with the Department of Defense, while Anthropic has been engaged in discussions regarding parameters for using its models in military intelligence and warfare.

The reliance on commercial models coincides with direct advisory roles for tech executives. Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that Musk and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey were selected to co-lead a study evaluating how advanced technology is and can be deployed on modern battlefields.