Fake video of Trump kissing Musk's feet appears at HUD building
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Screens at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) building in D.C. on Monday showed a fake video showing President Trump rubbing and kissing Elon Musk's feet, accompanied by the words: "Long Live the Real King."
The big picture: While it's unclear who was responsible for the videos at HUD, Musk in recent days demanded federal employees send an email with "approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week" by end of Monday. Some agency heads have instructed workers not to comply.
- Failure to provide the work summary would be considered a resignation, the email said.
- The Trump administration is also looking to potentially halve the workforce at the country's housing agency, AP reported last week, as the DOGE-backed firing blitz has rocked the federal government.
Driving the news: Several monitors with the fake video appeared at HUD, on the first day the Trump administration's return-to-office policy took effect.
- An unnamed HUD employee told Wired that federal workers had to manually turn off each television to stop the video from playing.
- Similar fake videos of Trump and Musk have appeared on social media since last year. Musk has not publicly commented on the situation.
- In a Monday evening statement, a spokesperson for HUD Secretary Scott Turner said the televisions inside the agency were "now showcasing the wins of the Trump administration, including action to lower the cost and expand the supply of affordable housing."
- "We expect the media to cover these historic achievements with the same level of detail and immediacy as other frivolous stories," the statement said.
Between the lines: Musk's DOGE has claimed in the last two weeks that they have recovered $1.9 billion in HUD funds "misplaced" by the Biden administration and have canceled at least $4 million in DEI contracts.
- The numbers on the public listing of the billions of dollars in purported savings that DOGE is making were also filled with errors.
What they're saying: "Another waste of taxpayer dollars and resources. Appropriate action will be taken for all involved," recently installed HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett said in a statement to Axios.
- "Not all heroes wear capes..." Democrats on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services account posted shortly after reports of the HUD situation gained traction on X.
Axios' Emily Peck contributed to this report.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with an additional statement from HUD.
