Tyler Cross
Published on: March 1, 2025
On Monday, federal employees with the Department of Housing and Urban Development arrived at work only to find that their systems were hacked.
The hackers posted a 19-second-long video of President Donald Trump kissing Elon Musk’s feet. Musk is a business partner and recently appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The caption read “Long live the real king.”
Trump has faced backlash and scrutiny after Musk began bankrolling his 2024 campaign and then took a government office with wide-reaching authority. The new department, DOGE, wields unprecedented power over every branch of the federal government, including the power to fire and appoint members of any branch.
The hackers took advantage of the building’s faulty cybersecurity defenses to criticize the overreach by poking fun at Musk seemingly holding more power than Trump. The video played for five minutes across multiple screens around the HUD building, including the cafeteria. Lawmakers were less than amused.
“Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so we sent people to every floor to unplug TVs,” said journalist Marisa Kabas on social media site Bluesky.
“Another waste of taxpayer dollars and resources,” HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett said to The Independent. “Appropriate action will be taken for all involved.”
Trump promptly dismissed the criticisms.
“Actually, Elon called me, and he said, ‘You know they’re trying to drive us apart,’” Trump said. “I said, ‘Absolutely.’”
The hack is just one of many likely to sweep through America. Lately, Trump fired over 130 members of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and severely cut funding to federal and consumer cybersecurity protections. Pundits and experts have referred to DOGE as the nation’s largest cybersecurity attack, noting that it sought and obtained broad access to the Internet Revenue Service (IRS).
