The clip—which is hard to watch—showed a photo-realist rendering of Trump sucking on Musk’s toes, with a text overlay that read, “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING”—a reference to both Musk’s growing influence in the Trump administration and the president describing himself as a “king” in a Truth Social post last week.

In a statement to HuffPost, HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett called the stunt “another waste of taxpayer dollars and resources” and said “appropriate action will be taken for all involved.”

While HUD quickly moved to scrap the videos from the agency’s buildings, copies of the clip were shared far and wide on social media.

“Someone apparently hacked the televisions at HUD today,” Jeff Stein, a reporter for The Washington Post, wrote on Bluesky.

Someone apparently hacked the televisions at HUD today -->

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— Jeff Stein (@jeffstein.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 2:38 PM

So far, no one has taken credit for the trick, but the incident comes after the Trump administration proposed cutting HUD’s workforce nearly in half—from some 8,300 employees to just over 4,000. According to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post, many of the projected cuts will be at the Federal Housing Administration, one of the largest mortgage insurers in the world.

As The Post noted, the layoffs will likely further imperil the fragile U.S. housing and mortgage markets. FHA helps those “with lower credit scores, first-time home buyers, or those who can afford only small down payments” to buy their first home, per the outlet.

These FHA staffers won’t be the only ones left without a job, though. Employees working on issues related to disaster recovery, rental subsidies, and housing discrimination investigations will also get cut, according to the Associated Press.

The AI video is an interesting wrinkle in the cost-cutting agenda of the Department of Government Efficiency, the Musk-run agency that is not an official government department but has been spearheading these layoffs. Amid a sharp drop in federal employees’ morale, Musk emailed all federal workers over the weekend asking them to email him five things they worked on this past week or risk getting fired.

In recent weeks, though, there’s been increased criticism regarding Musk’s close relationship with the president. During a joint interview on Fox News, Musk dominated Trump, constantly interrupting or talking over the president. Before that, Musk addressed reporters in the Oval Office as the president signed an executive order compelling federal agencies to collaborate with DOGE.

Of course, neither Musk nor Trump has acknowledged the alleged hack at HUD, but the image to the rest of the world is a striking one: It suggests Trump is merely a figurehead while an unelected mega-billionaire wields the reins.