The Daily Populous Tuesday February 25th, 2025 morning edition
Authored by rollingstone.com and submitted by rollingstone

As Donald Trump and Elon Musk prepare to bring their next round of arbitrary cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it seems like at least one employee is making their displeasure known. On Monday morning, the first day of the Trump administration’s “return to office” ban on remote work, employees at HUD were greeted by a feat of digital protest — or a “foot” of one.

According to videos and photos circulated on social media, televisions at HUD’s central office in Washington, D.C., were hijacked to play an AI-generated video of Trump making sweet, sloppy oral love to Musk’s bare feet. The words “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING” were emblazoned over the visual, likely a reference to recent posts from Trump and the White House describing the president as “the king.”

In one clip circulated on social media, an employee can be heard saying that “someone’s gonna get fired.” According to independent journalist Marisa Kabas, the video played on loop for about five minutes. An exact amount of time is hard to ascertain given that — according to Kabas — staff couldn’t figure out how to shut off the lewd lapping all at once, and instead dispatched employees to manually unplug every monitor they could find.

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

Tensions between federal workers and the Trump administration escalated significantly over the weekend after Musk — head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — issued an edict in conjunction with the Office of Personnel Management (OMP) demanding that over two million federal employees send submit a list of their workplace accomplishments over the course of the last week. The billionaire, who used a similar tactic during his 2022 purchase of Twitter (now X) — threatened termination against any employee who does not comply with the demand. Editor’s picks

“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk wrote. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

Musk’s work rooting through the federal government and firing its employees en masse has led to a mountain of litigation for the Trump administration, including disputes over employment laws, data security, and even the legality of DOGE’s existence. As much as the billionaire and the former president insist that it’s all love between them — though not necessarily the podiatric kind — reports of rising tensions between Musk and the Trump administration continue to circulate.

According to a source who spoke to The Washington Post last week “basically every Cabinet member is sick of [Elon], but nobody feels like they’re in a position to do anything about it.” According to The Sunday Times, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is attempting to create a buffer between Musk and the president. Wiles reportedly denied Musk an office in the White House.

“I don’t welcome people who want to work solo or be a star,” the chief of staff told Axios in January. “My team and I will not tolerate backbiting, second-guessing inappropriately, or drama. These are counterproductive to the mission.”

Cartmansimon on February 24th, 2025 at 19:01 UTC »

It’s not AI. It’s real. Many people are saying it. Some of the best people tell me with tears in their eyes they saw it first hand.

FlamingMuffi on February 24th, 2025 at 18:15 UTC »

Why is everyone saying it's AI?

It's very clearly real

Archer1407 on February 24th, 2025 at 18:05 UTC »

I saw the video on Tiktok and didn't believe it was real. This is amazing. We need more guerilla warfare like this.