Did Trump order Maduro’s kidnapping based on Grok’s advice?
Published on 02/10/2026 - 11:13 GMT+2 In December 2025, Elon Musk visited the White House for a secret meeting with the US President, with Trump spending hours asking AI...
Published on 02/10/2026 - 11:13 GMT+2
In December 2025, Elon Musk visited the White House for a secret meeting with the US President, with Trump spending hours asking AI chatbot Grok questions about his presidency and legacy and how Venezuelans would react if US forces captured President Nicolás Maduro, Time magazine reports.
According to an official present at the meeting, the chatbot responded that Maduro was a repressive and deeply unpopular dictator and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall.
Following the US capture of Maduro in January of this year, Venezuelans did indeed celebrate in large numbers all over the country. Trump came away from this experience “thinking Grok was ingenious”.
The meeting took place seven months after Musk left his role at the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), yet how this meeting fits into the timeline of escalations in December is unclear.
At the time, tensions between the two countries were at their highest, with the Trump administration waging a war against drug cartels known as Operation Southern Spear, the setting up of a maritime blockade and the US declaration of Maduro’s government as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization”.
Behind the scenes, the Trump administration had also been making transition plans should they decide to oust Maduro and seize the country’s oil and mineral resources.
The reports in Time magazine suggest that Grok may have convinced Trump to go ahead.
The US government has ramped up the use of AI this year, with Google’s Gemini and Musk’s Grok both used in public services such as Medicare, and applying for government jobs as well as for defence purposes, including integration into fighter planes.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Meta’s Llama and Anthropic’s Claude have all been approved for certain functions in the US government.
Musk is back in the fold
Time's report lands the same week Musk returned to an official government role for the first time since leaving DOGE in May 2025.
On Wednesday, Hegseth named the world's richest man, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich to co-lead a new Pentagon study on the future of warfare.
The appointment has raised questions about conflicts of interest, as both Musk and Luckey run companies with substantial defence business. Musk's SpaceX is already building satellite networks for Trump's planned Golden Dome missile defence shield.
Musk is also spending millions to help Republicans keep control of Congress in November's midterm elections.
