The 19-second video displayed the words, “Long live the real king”
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A video made with artificial intelligence (AI) depicting President Donald Trump kissing Elon Musk’s feet played on the TV screens in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) building on Monday, Feb. 24, per The Hill and NBC News.
The 19-second video displayed the words, “Long live the real king” on the video. Marisa Kabas reported on BlueSky that the video played on a loop for five minutes throughout the building, including in the cafeteria.
The video appeared the day federal workers were ordered to return to the office following Trump’s Monday, Jan. 20 executive order that declared the end of working from home for federal employees.
The AI video also referenced Trump’s Truth Social post from Wednesday, Feb. 19, in which he wrote, “Long Live the King!” The Monday video seemingly referred to the relationship between the president and Musk, 53.
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Trump appointed Musk as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). It is not an official federal department but has been behind a push to eliminate several thousand federal workers since its inception.
“Another waste of taxpayer dollars and resources. Appropriate action will be taken for all involved,” HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett said in a statement to The Hill.
The AI video also comes days after Musk posted to X on Saturday, Feb. 22, telling government employees to list five things they accomplished during the previous work week, or they will be fired.
Shortly after Musk’s X post, federal employees received an email from the Office of Personnel Management titled: “What did you do last week?”
“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished this week and cc your manager,” the email read. The message stated that all employees had until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24, to reply.
Although Musk’s initial post said those who did not comply would lose their jobs, the email did not.
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After receiving criticism about his authority to make such a demand, the Tesla CEO told an X user on Sunday, Feb. 23, that he sent the email “to see who had a pulse and two working neurons.”
He doubled down on Monday, Feb. 24, and wrote on X, “Those who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere.”
