Democrats Demand Trump's Grok Chats After Report He Asked AI How Venezuelans Would React to Maduro Capture

Senior House Democrats have told the White House to preserve every prompt Donald Trump and his staff have typed into AI chatbots, after a report that the president quizzed Elon Musk's Grok about Venezuela weeks before US forces captured Nicolás Maduro.

Representatives Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia say the records must be preserved under the Presidential Records Act. They want a closed-door briefing on the administration's use of AI by 11 November. The White House says it preserves all records required by law.

Hours With a Chatbot

The request stems from a TIME magazine report by Eric Cortellessa, 'What Trump Has Built', published on 1 October, which TechCrunch also covered.

According to TIME, in December 2025, during a secret White House meeting with Musk, Trump spent hours asking Grok questions about his presidency, his legacy and how Venezuelans would react if Maduro were captured, Euronews reported.

An official present at the meeting said Grok replied that Maduro was a repressive and deeply unpopular dictator, and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall. Trump came away from the experience 'thinking Grok was ingenious', the report said.

Weeks later, in January 2026, US forces captured Maduro. The meeting came at a time of high tension between Washington and Caracas, including Operation Southern Spear against drug cartels, a maritime blockade and the US designation of Maduro's government as a terrorist organisation, according to Euronews. It also took place seven months after Musk left the Department of Government Efficiency.

Grok's prediction appeared to be borne out. Venezuelans celebrated in large numbers across the country after the capture, Euronews reported.

Euronews noted that the reporting raises questions about whether Grok influenced Trump's thinking, but does not establish that it did.

Democrats Say Prompts Are Public Records

Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, set out their demands in a letter dated 28 October 2026.

They argue that AI prompts from the president and his staff, and the outputs they receive, are presidential records owned by the United States and must be preserved. The letter names Grok, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity.

It cites the Presidential Records Act, passed in 1978, which says the United States 'shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records'. The lawmakers argue that chatbot prompts and outputs 'plainly fall within' the law's definition.

The pair also request a closed-door briefing by 5pm on 11 November covering ten areas. These include retention policies for AI material, contracts with chatbot vendors, limits on entering classified information, cybersecurity safeguards and a description of Trump's own chatbot use, including any use in the presence of people outside government such as Musk.

Fears Over Security and Influence

The letter calls the Venezuela episode 'deeply troubling' because the president allegedly consulted a chatbot rather than Congress, Nextgov reported. It says Trump ordered the attack on Venezuela without congressional authorisation.

The lawmakers warn of national security risks and 'malign influence from unknown and unaccountable third parties'. They also want to know whether vendors or other outside parties can access prompts, outputs or logs.

To make their case, they point to a July 2025 episode in which Grok praised Hitler, which the letter attributes to adjustments made by Musk. They also cite a reported case in which a US intelligence report based on an AI chatbot misidentified a Chinese ship's cargo, and reports raising questions about whether overreliance on AI contributed to a US strike on an Iranian school.

The letter raises other security concerns too, including Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's reported use of unsecured channels and reports that a soldier placed prediction-market bets on Maduro's removal. It also references Grok's reported generation of sexualised images.

The White House pushed back. An official told Nextgov that the administration 'preserves all required records in accordance with the law'.

Online Reaction and What Comes Next

Journalist Scott MacFarlane shared an excerpt of the letter on X, quoting its line that Trump 'reportedly sought the chatbot's advice on carrying out some of your presidential duties'. The post had been viewed about 160,000 times at the time of writing.

Replies mixed alarm with mockery. 'We are not ready for the dumb dark demented mess of Trump's AI prompts,' one user wrote. Another joked about a framed screenshot of a Grok chat hanging in the White House 'where the autopen once enjoyed pride of place'.

The demand also lands in the middle of a wider fight over the law itself. In April, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion declaring the Presidential Records Act unconstitutional, according to Tech Times, and that position is being contested in federal court. The lawmakers' view that chatbot records fall under the act is their legal argument, not a court ruling.

The letter was copied to the Republican committee chairmen, Jim Jordan and James Comer. As the minority, Democrats cannot independently compel the White House to provide the briefing they have requested. Preservation under the law would also not mean the chats are made public, as the act allows access to some records to be restricted.

That could change. Nextgov described the request as a possible preview of the oversight Democrats could pursue if they win the House in next week's midterm elections on Tuesday, 3 November.