A fake, AI-created video of President Trump kissing Elon Musk's feet played on TVs at HUD HQ in DC - and no one knew how to stop it

Employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Washington headquarters walked into an awkward scene Monday morning. Televisions across the building blared a bizarre AI-generated clip of former President Donald Trump kneeling to kiss the feet of billionaire Elon Musk. The surreal video, which played on loop for nearly five minutes, left staff scrambling to shut it down – and laughing once they realized no one knew how.

The clip, which circulated online days earlier, showed a glitchy Trump figure massaging and planting sloppy kisses on the toes of a Musk lookalike. A caption reading “Long live the real king” flashed over the footage, mocking the duo’s alliance. One telltale sign of AI tampering? Musk’s feet. Both were left feet.

The timing wasn’t subtle. Federal workers had just returned to offices under Trump’s push to end remote work, a move met with frustration as agencies like HUD face steep layoffs. Some employees privately cheered the stunt. “Staff have viewed this as a sign of resistance that has brought a lot of joy,” one worker told NBC News.

HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett vowed “appropriate action” against those responsible, calling it a waste of taxpayer resources. The agency’s social media team also clashed with Democrats online who hailed the prank as heroic. “Not all heroes wear capes,” posted one user on Bluesky. Another sarcastically remarked, “The first ethical use of AI just dropped.”

The video’s spread highlighted more than office politics. When staff couldn’t disable the feed through normal channels, they resorted to unplugging every TV manually – floor by floor. “Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs,” said an independent journalist Marisa Kabas, who reported the scramble.

Neither Trump nor Musk commented. But the incident underscored a growing headache for institutions: AI’s role in blurring reality. As deepfakes flood the internet, even government offices aren’t immune to getting punked.

As screens went dark, the clip lived on elsewhere. By afternoon, it had millions of views online – and zero answers from D.C. about how to stop what’s coming next.