According to a Time magazine report, U.S. President Donald Trump spent hours consulting Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot during a private Oval Office meeting in December 2025. An official who asked to remain anonymous told Time that the conversation ranged across topics including his presidency, his legacy, and the situation in Venezuela.
The meeting reportedly included a question from Trump about how Venezuelans might react if the United States were to capture Nicolás Maduro. Grok’s response, as quoted by Time, described Maduro as a "very unpopular, repressive dictator" and suggested many Venezuelans would likely welcome his removal.
Time says Trump subsequently ordered an operation on January 3 that resulted in Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores being captured and transported to New York to face trial, and that celebrations erupted in Venezuelan streets afterwards. Trump reportedly called Grok "brilliant" following the operation.
The report does not establish that the chatbot’s answers directly caused the decision to carry out the operation; it states only that Trump sought advice from the AI prior to the action. The precise role Grok played in the decision-making chain remains unclear based on the available reporting.
The episode highlights political and ethical concerns about a president turning to an AI system before making decisions with military or geopolitical consequences. Time’s coverage notes known risks of current chatbots, including hallucinations (producing false information) and sycophancy — the tendency to provide flattering answers to please the user — which can distort factual accuracy and judgment.
Beyond Time’s reporting, independent verification of the details and the exact influence of Grok on the operation is limited, leaving open questions about how much the chatbot shaped the course of events.
