February 8, 2025
Elon Musk rehired a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer who had previously resigned after racist and pro-eugenics social media posts linked to him came to light
On Feb. 7, Elon Musk announced his decision to rehire a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer who had previously resigned after racist and pro-eugenics social media posts on a X account linked to the former staffer came to light.
According to USA Today, Musk’s decision came after Trump’s Vice President JD Vance voiced his disapproval of the consequences to 25-year-old software programmer Marko Elez’s actions on social media, and was later supported by Trump.
A few of Elez’s offensive statements include: “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” “Normalize Indian hate,” and “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.”
Of note, Vance’s wife, and the mother of his children, Usha Vance, is the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Vance repeatedly infantilized Elez, referring to the 25-year-old man, as a kid.
Vance and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) got into a spat on X over the proposed rehiring of the DOGE staffer.
“Are you going to tell him to apologize for saying ‘Normalize Indian hate’ before this rehire? Just asking for the sake of both of our kids,” Khanna said on X.
“For the sake of both of our kids? Grow up. Racist trolls on the internet, while offensive, don’t threaten my kids. You know what does? A culture that denies grace to people who make mistakes. A culture that encourages congressmen to act like whiny children,” Vance wrote in reply to Rep. Khanna.
Vance continued, “I don’t worry about my kids making mistakes, or developing views they later regret. I don’t even worry that much about trolls on the internet. You know what I do worry about, Ro? That they’ll grow up to be a US Congressmen who engages in emotional blackmail over a kid’s social media posts. You disgust me.”
Marko Elez is the first of Elon Musk's DOGE boys to resign after the Wall Street Journal uncovered racists posts including ones where he "advocated repealing the Civil Rights Act" & backed a "eugenic immigration policy”
Elez previously worked at SpaceX and currently works at X pic.twitter.com/jqKIMl2ACw
“Here’s my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” Vance said on Feb. 7. “We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”
Trump was asked for his view of Vance’s comments at a press conference at the White House, and after initially indicating that he didn’t know what the reporters were referring to before asking Vance if he made the comments in question.
After Vance replied in the affirmative, Trump then stated that “I’m with the vice president.”
According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and contrary to the claims of Vance, Elez resigned after reporters for The Wall Street Journal asked him about the social media posts linked back to him.
Musk, meanwhile, seemed to indicate on social media that he wants the reporter who uncovered the posts to be fired.
Musk replied underneath a post that seemed to come from a right-wing conspiracy theorist that Katherine Long, a reporter at the WSJ, should be fired immediately.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Elez was also a central figure in a legal fight over DOGE’s access to sensitive taxpayer information and systems used by the Treasury Department to process trillions of dollars in payments per year.
On Feb. 6, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that Elez could keep his access to the department’s payment systems, but imposed limitations on his ability to share the data. Later on that day, Elez resigned from DOGE.
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