In December 2025, just a month before the U.S. invasion of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, President Trump held a secret meeting with Elon Musk, according to Time magazine. This meeting occurred approximately seven months after Musk departed from his role in the Trump administration at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
During this meeting, Trump reportedly "spent hours" engaging with Musk's Grok chatbot. He inquired about how Venezuelans would react to the potential capture of their president. A source informed Time that, prior to this, in September, Trump had begun ordering U.S. military strikes against Venezuelan boats, which he alleged were involved in drug trafficking.
