You’ve probably seen the headline. It sounds like a fever dream or a particularly weird deleted scene from a political thriller. Trump kissing Elon’s feet. Not metaphorical feet—literal feet.
If you were scrolling through social media in late February 2025, it was everywhere. People were losing their minds. Was it real? Was the President actually groveling before the world’s richest man? Honestly, the truth is way more indicative of the chaotic era we're living in than any secret backroom meeting could be.
The image didn't just stay on Twitter (or X, if you're being formal). It actually made it inside the halls of the United States government.
The Morning the Department of Housing and Urban Development Broke
Imagine you’re a federal employee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It’s Monday, February 24, 2025. You’re just trying to get your coffee and survive another week of "efficiency" audits. You look up at the internal TV monitors in the cafeteria, and there it is: a video of President Donald Trump appearing to peck and massage the bare feet of Elon Musk.
A caption flashed across the screen: "LONG LIVE THE REAL KING."
The lobby was stunned. Some people laughed. Others were just confused. The video played on a loop, a high-definition digital prank that bypassed security and landed squarely on government hardware. It wasn't a secret tape or a leaked file. It was a sophisticated deepfake, a product of AI-generated satire that used "Nano Banana" level fidelity to look disturbingly real.
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Kasey Lovett, a spokesperson for HUD, didn't find it funny. She called it a "waste of taxpayer resources." Meanwhile, an anonymous HUD employee told reporters that for many in the building, it felt like a small "sign of resistance" during a time of massive layoffs.
Why People Believed the Power Dynamic
The reason this specific deepfake went viral wasn't just the gross-out factor. It tapped into a very real anxiety about who was actually running the show in early 2025.
Elon Musk wasn't just a donor anymore. He was co-leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He was fanning out across agencies, locking employees out of their computers, and demanding people justify their jobs in five sentences or less. He was essentially a "shadow president" in the eyes of many critics.
- The Funding: Musk put over $200 million into the 2024 campaign.
- The Access: He was frequently seen in the Oval Office, often with his son X Æ A-12 in tow.
- The Authority: He was given the green light to slash $1 trillion from the federal budget.
When Trump posted "LONG LIVE THE KING" on Truth Social regarding a policy win, the hackers simply added the word "REAL" and pointed it at Musk. It was a commentary on the perceived submissiveness of the administration to the Silicon Valley elite.
The Bromance that Burned Too Bright
The "feet-kissing" video was the peak of the public's obsession with their partnership, but like most things in the Trump orbit, the alliance was built on shifting sand. By May 30, 2025, Musk was officially out of his formal government role. He had hit the 130-day limit for "special government employees," and the honeymoon was ending.
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By June, the "Trump kissing Elon's feet" narrative had flipped 180 degrees.
The two started a full-blown "flame war" over the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB). Musk called it a "disgusting abomination" because of the deficit spending. Trump, never one to take criticism quietly, went on Truth Social to claim Musk was "wearing thin" and that he had basically fired him.
The most wild part? Musk actually suggested a third impeachment for Trump on X before deleting it. The man who was supposedly having his feet kissed a few months prior was now being threatened with the loss of his SpaceX contracts and EV subsidies.
How to Spot the Fakes in a Post-Truth World
We've entered a period where "seeing is believing" is a dangerous mantra. The HUD incident proved that even government-secured screens aren't safe from AI-generated misinformation. If you see a video of a world leader doing something that seems physically or socially impossible, it’s likely a deepfake.
Look for the "tells" that were present in the Musk/Trump video:
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- Limbs: In the HUD clip, eagle-eyed viewers noticed Musk appeared to have "two left feet."
- Context: Major events like a President "kissing feet" wouldn't happen in a vacuum without witnesses or high-quality secondary footage.
- Source: Always check if the video is being hosted on official channels or if it's appearing as a "hack" or a "leak" on social media.
Basically, the era of the "unfiltered" look is over. Everything is curated, and a lot of it is manufactured.
What This Means for You
The "Trump kissing Elon's feet" saga is a case study in how memes become political reality. It doesn't matter that it was fake; it mattered that people felt it represented a truth about the power balance in Washington.
To stay informed, you need to look past the shock-value imagery. Follow the actual legislative filings and contract cancellations. When Trump threatened to cut SpaceX subsidies in June 2025, that had a bigger impact on your world than a deepfake video ever could. It wiped out $150 billion in Tesla's market cap in 48 hours.
Next time a "shocking" video drops, wait 24 hours. The debunking usually catches up by then, and you'll avoid the emotional rollercoaster of a manufactured "king" narrative. Focus on the money and the policy—that's where the real power remains.