Back in 2016, Michelle Obama famously laid out a strategy for opponents of Donald Trump to fight back: “When they go low, we go so low that we hack screens throughout a government building to show a fake video of Trump kissing Elon Musk’s feet.” … Or something like that.
On Monday morning, TVs throughout the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development headquarters in Washington, D.C., showed an AI-generated video of Trump sucking on the (alleged) DOGE leader’s toes, with the message, “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING.” (Last week, Trump referred to himself as a monarch in a Truth Social post celebrating his administration’s move to kill congestion pricing in New York City, writing, “LONG LIVE THE KING!”)
The video wasn’t up for long. Journalist Marisa Kabas reports that building staffers couldn’t figure out how to stop the disgusting HUD broadcast, so they just unplugged all the TVs in the building:
So far no one has claimed responsibility for the hack, but presumably the HUD building is chock-full of furious employees right now. Late last week, the Associated Press reported that the Trump administration is looking to lay off half of the federal workers at the agency:
The Trump administration’s proposal to cut half of federal workers at the nation’s housing agency is targeting employees who support disaster recovery, rental subsidies, discrimination investigations and first-time homebuyers, according to two documents obtained by The Associated Press.
More than a dozen programs within the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s portfolio would be affected by the loss of some 4,000 positions detailed in the documents, raising concerns among former HUD officials and housing advocates who say a skeletal staff could slow or even stall the department’s critical work.
HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett on Thursday said the leaked documents “should not be taken as final” as staffing is evaluated throughout the agency. The documents, which aren’t clearly dated but were circulated this week, include total staffing numbers, expected resignations, as well as a projected “Day 120 Headcount” and reduction percentage of staff at individual HUD offices.
And over the weekend, Musk and the DOGE-controlled Office of Personnel Management mass emailed 2.3 million federal employees directing them to list “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and CC your manager” by the end of the day on Monday. Trump endorsed the move on Sunday by posting a SpongeBob SquarePants meme on Truth Social:
While Trump and Musk — who once described himself as “Chief Troll Officer” at Twitter — are huge fans of shitposting, it seems the Trump administration didn’t enjoy HUD’s retaliatory trolling.
“Another waste of taxpayer dollars and resources. Appropriate action will be taken for all involved,” HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett told The Hill.
But what are they going to do? Fire half of HUD’s staff and hobble the agency?
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