--- title: "Trump Was Reportedly Pushed Into Invading Venezuela by Conversation With Grok" description: "Trump reportedly consulted with Grok for hours on his next course of action in Venezuela before launching a military invasion." date: "2026-10-02" modified: "2026-10-02" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/trump-grok-venezuela" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" --- # Trump Was Reportedly Pushed Into Invading Venezuela by Conversation With Grok ![US President Donald Trump uses a cellphone aboard Marine One before it departs.]() *Alex WROBLEWSKI / AFP via Getty Images* It's hardly a secret that president Donald Trump is [addicted to AI slop](), but his proclivity for being wooed by the tech apparently doesn't end there. Trump is also, according to [new reporting]() from *TIME* magazine, absolutely enthralled by Elon Musk's Grok chatbot. Whereas your average user might turn to the infamously foul-mouthed AI — which briefly identified itself as "MechaHitler" — to win an online argument or crank out gooning material, the commander in chief uses it for more productive activities such as consulting on his military and geopolitical schemes. An illustrative moment came in December 2025, when Elon Musk returned to the Oval Office for a secret meeting, according to *TIME*. Trump spent hours asking Grok questions about his presidency and legacy, an official present told the magazine. On the top of Trump's mind was Venezuela and "narcoterrorism," supposed threats to the nation that he was combatting by [bombing random Venezuelan fishing boats](). Trump asked Grok how Venezuelans would react if the US captured the country's president Nicolas Maduro. And Grok, in classic AI sycophantic fashion, told him what he wanted to hear. The chatbot asserted that Maduro was a deeply unpopular dictator, so Venezuelans would celebrate his ousting. Trump, as you may well know, then went ahead and ordered the technically-not-an-invasion of Venezuela, in a series of military strikes that killed dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban military personnel and several civilians, and led to the capture of Maduro. When news footage showed celebrations in the streets, Trump, officials said, came away convinced that Grok was ingenious. Even setting aside his public love of AI slop, it's not surprising to hear that Trump's bewitched by a chatbot. He's old, for one. And more importantly, he's someone who surrounds himself with yes-men in real life. An AI chatbot will confirm what he already believes and entertain his whims without any of the friction that may arise with human sycophants such as what happened with his First Buddy, or the numerous appointees [he fell out with during his first term](). He also, if not [outright senile](), is visibly showing a diminished mental acuity befitting his years. When *TIME* [interviewed]() Trump, he struggled to string even two short sentences together in a coherent fashion, such as when he was asked if he liked Sam Altman. "I like him. Do I trust him? Who do I trust? I like Sam Altman," Trump babbled. "Smart. Dario's smart. They're all smart. We're dealing with a very high level of IQ. Very very high level. That's a good thing. I like that. I like it. Did you see the story about my uncle?" Trump's affinity for Grok's advice isn't the only incident that calls into question the Trump administration's embrace of AI in high-level decision-making. The Pentagon has used Grok and Anthropic's Claude AI to [select targets to be bombed in Iran](). An AI-targeting system was also used in the February 28th air strikes on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school that killed over 150 people, including at least 123 children. **More on AI:** [*Trump Launched an America.org “Super Intelligence” Chatbot and It Immediately Disagrees With Him on Huge Topics, Including Whether He Won the 2020 Election*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()