The history of feet.
So much symbolism to unpack.
Consider that every year, the Pope makes a ceremony out of washing the feet of parishioners. He’s reenacting the example set by Jesus Christ, who washed his disciples' feet as a lesson about service to others—which is our responsibility, no matter who we are.
Then there’s this week’s AI-generated video that took over the TVs inside the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Someone hacked the screens and played faked footage of the president kissing Elon Musk’s feet, with "LONG LIVE THE REAL KING" splashed over top. Trump was so voraciously worshipping that he looked intoxicated by the fragrance. It was, in a word, gruesome.
Kissing the king’s feet is much different than the King of Kings washing the feet of his subjects. One is service. The other is subjugation. This performance, though, was something else—a mix of recognition of power and lusting after it.
Naturally, I thought: Doesn’t this need some music?
That’s how “Foot Play” was born—a piece that feels like a royal fever dream. The video I created, set in a springtime Capitol, underscores the contrast between how we view our history and what’s happening today.
But why would Donald Trump be so infatuated by Elon Musk?
Trump often gets depicted in love affairs with strongmen: We’ve seen murals of him kissing Putin. Memes of him waltzing with Kim Jong Un—out of the lead position. Now, Trump has a new object of affection, one that’s atypical.
You can imagine why. Trump loves money. And Musk has lots more of it than him. Money is the metric he respects above all others. No matter how many terms he racks up as president, Trump might never feel he measures up.
And so the idolatry of money leads Trump to slobber over the feet of wealth’s incarnation—at least in this pretend world. These days, even the resistance has an AI account.
What if current events had a movie score?
This video is part of my “Scoring The News” series.
Subscribe for more original scores set to video.
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