Musk's Grok advised Trump to invade Venezuela, Pentagon already using it in war

According to a Time report, in December 2025 — roughly six months after Musk left his role at DOGE, Trump's Department of Government Efficiency — the two men held a secret meeting. Trump spent hours in front of Grok, xAI's chatbot, asking how Venezuelan citizens would react to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. Grok replied that Maduro was a "very unpopular dictator" and that his ouster would be met with widespread celebrations.

The context: strikes in September, invasion in January

A few months earlier, in September 2025, Trump ordered military strikes against Venezuelan vessels he claimed were involved in drug smuggling. Around that time, per The Atlantic, users were putting questions to Grok about the strikes and Venezuela's political climate. On January 3, 2026, the U.S. invaded Venezuela and captured Maduro; when the celebrations Grok predicted materialized, Trump was impressed enough to call the model "genius," according to Time's source.

From Venezuela to Iran

In June 2026, the Pentagon's chief AI officer confirmed that the military had used the government version of Grok — Gov Grok — for deployment and targeting during the war in Iran. Grok is not the only model serving the Defense Department: OpenAI has a similar agreement, and Anthropic is in ongoing talks about using its models for military intelligence and modern warfare. But Grok is emerging as the clear favorite under the current administration.

Musk and Luckey to lead battlefield research

This week the Pentagon announced that Musk and Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril, will jointly lead research into how advanced technologies are being integrated — and could be integrated — on the battlefield. The appointment signals a deepening link between Musk's private empire and the military establishment, as large language models shift from strategic advice to actual operational use.