Tech billionaire Elon Musk said he will rehire a 25-year-old Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) engineer who resigned after scrutiny over racist social media posts.
Marko Elez, a former employee at SpaceX, Starlink, and X, joined DOGE to monitor federal spending. He stepped down on February 6 after a report from The Wall Street Journal linked him to a now-deleted account that promoted racist and eugenicist views.
According to the Journal, the account, previously known as @marko_elez, posted several inflammatory statements. In September, it wrote, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” and “Normalize Indian hate” while commenting on the prevalence of Indian professionals in Silicon Valley.
Another post from December took aim at Indian software engineers: “99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they’re going back don’t worry guys.” The Journal also cited a July post saying, “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.”
The Wall Street Journal’s report revealed that Elez had full control of computer code that managed security payments, tax returns, and other federal payouts. His resignation followed after the White House was questioned about his connection to the deleted social media account.
Elez’s comments sparked criticism from lawmakers and federal employee unions, raising concerns about the vetting of DOGE staffers with access to sensitive data.
Musk later posted a poll on X asking if Elez should be reinstated, framing it as a question of forgiveness. The poll received 78% support for his return. On Friday morning, Vice President J.D. Vance weighed in, saying that while Elez’s posts were regrettable, “We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So, I say bring him back.”
Musk responded with a salute emoji and wrote, “He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine.”