Federal staff on the Division of Housing and City Improvement (HUD) have been greeted this morning by tv units on the company’s Washington, DC headquarters taking part in what seems to be an AI-generated video of President Donald Trump kissing the toes of Elon Musk, accompanied by the phrases: “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING.”
An individual at HUD headquarters on Monday morning shared a video with WIRED displaying the scene taking part in out on a loop on a TV display screen contained in the Robert C. Weaver Federal Constructing. The supply, who was granted anonymity over fears of repercussions, says that employees on the constructing needed to manually flip off every TV with a view to cease the video taking part in.
It’s at the moment unclear who was behind the prank. Comparable AI-generated movies and nonetheless photos of Trump kissing Musk’s toes have been shared on social media platforms since final yr.
“One other waste of taxpayer {dollars} and assets,” Kasey Lovett, a HUD spokesperson tells WIRED. “Acceptable motion shall be taken for all concerned.”
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The incident got here simply days after leaked paperwork confirmed that Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) venture was planning to eradicate 4,000 employees at the agency, which is within the midst of coping with a US housing disaster.
NPR reported this weekend that HUD’s Workplace of Group Planning and Improvement is slated to lose 84 p.c of its workers in line with leaked paperwork.
“We’ve determined internally to start out notifying our grantees—each mayor, county head, governor, nonprofit CEO, and congressional earmark recipient—that they need to anticipate a loss or important unpredictable delay in funding,” a present HUD worker tells WIRED.
Over the weekend, staff at HUD, like many different federal employees, received an email from the Office of Personnel Management demanding a reply with “approx. 5 bullets of what you achieved final week.”
Management at lots of the businesses, in addition to federal employee union leaders, told their members not to respond to the emails, whereas HUD management instructed staff to attend till at the least midday on Monday earlier than taking any motion, a HUD supply tells WIRED.
