On January 20, 2025, newly inaugurated Republican Donald Trump issued a flurry of executive orders.
Among them was one that stated:
"Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis..."
As workers at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) returned to work this Monday morning—the first day of the Trump administration’s "return to office" ban on remote work—they were greeted by a special video message.
According to The Washington Post, TV screens throughout HUD showed a looping AI-generated video of Trump "kissing" Elon Musk’s toes, superimposed with the words "LONG LIVE THE REAL KING."
You can see clips here:
While many media outlets referred to the video as Trump kissing Musk’s feet, the video looks a bit more like Trump licking and sucking on Musk’s toes.
Either way, the image is unforgettable.
Sources at HUD shared photos and videos with members of the Washington press corps and independent journalists.
The images and video clips quickly made it to social media.
@marisakabas/Bluesky
@out5p0ken/Bluesky
The real king reference follows Trump calling himself king in his own social media post.
On February 19, Trump posted on Truth Social:
"CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
The official White House account later parroted Trump’s post on X.
They added a fake TIME magazine cover with a crowned King Donald.
@WhiteHouse/X
But like many of the Trump administration’s critics, the HUD video pointed to Musk as the real king of the Trump administration, the real President, and the real power pulling Trump’s strings.
The Trump White House has disputed this characterization, claiming just last week that Musk was an Oval Office employee and senior adviser—not an employee of the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and has no decision-making authority.
In an official court filing last Monday, Joshua Fisher—director of the office of administration at the White House—certified:
"Like other senior White House advisers, Mr Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself."
But then Saturday, Musk announced on X that he'd demanded all federal employees must report "what they got done last week" or resign from their jobs.
Federal employees also received a short email which said to provide "approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
Agencies have issued their own directives to their employees, with many stating Musk’s email should be ignored.
With Musk’s repeated overreach and Trump's failure to rein him in, people found the HUD video accurate and appropriate.
The 19-second video was on display on loop for about five minutes Monday morning until it was reportedly stopped by Housing and Urban Development officials, who unplugged the TVs.
It is unclear at this point who is responsible for the hack or whether it was done internally by a HUD employee.
HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett said in a statement to the media:
"[The hack was] another waste of taxpayer dollars and resources."
"Appropriate action will be taken for all involved."
Retaliation may be forthcoming—if they can figure out who was responsible—but what has been seen can never be unseen.
@elonmusk/X
@mcrs987/X
