TIME reports Trump asked Grok about a possible Maduro capture
An official present told TIME that Trump asked Musk's chatbot how Venezuelans might react if the United States captured Maduro.
A reported conversation before the capture
President Donald Trump spent hours asking Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot questions during a December 2025 Oval Office meeting with Musk, according to an official who told TIME they were present. TIME reported on October 1 that Trump asked how Venezuelans would react if the United States captured President Nicolas Maduro. The chatbot reportedly described Maduro as unpopular and predicted that many Venezuelans would celebrate his fall. TIME says Trump later regarded Grok as ingenious after the United States captured Maduro in January 2026. TechCrunch separately highlighted this passage from TIME’s broader account.
The conversation is a media report based on a source described as an official present, not a released chat transcript or an on-record confirmation from Trump or Musk. TIME’s account establishes what that source said; it does not establish that Grok recommended a military operation, that Trump relied on its answer when deciding what to do, or that the answer was an intelligence assessment. Those distinctions matter when describing AI’s possible role in a consequential government decision. The specific chat record and any influence it had on the decision remain unverified in the reviewed sources.