A 25-year-old staffer for Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who resigned from his position last week after his racist social media posts came to light has been reinstated following defenses from Musk, Vice President J.D. Vance and President Donald Trump.
Marko Elez’s role at DOGE gave him access to the Treasury Department’s systems, including those responsible for the majority of payments made by the U.S. government. Prior to taking on his role at DOGE, Elez worked at companies owned by Musk.
Last week, a Wall Street Journal report highlighted many of Elez’s alarming posts on X, including posts where he called for the repeal of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, bragged about being racist “before it was cool,” and demanded that the tech sector “normalize Indian hate.”
“You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” Elez said in one of his posts.
“I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth,” he said in another.
Elez also said that the U.S. should implement an immigration policy based on eugenics, a white nationalist social theory that has long been debunked as unscientific and racist.
Most of Elez’s posts were published within the past year. In response to the account coming to light, several Trump administration officials came to Elez’s defense, saying the posts weren’t worth firing someone over.
Vance, for example, downplayed Elez’s racism, referring to the posts as “stupid social media activity” that shouldn’t ruin his life. He also described Elez as a “kid,” and attacked The Wall Street Journal for supposedly trying to “destroy people.”
“If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that,” Vance said, adding that Musk should “bring him back.” His comments failed to address widespread concerns from the public regarding someone with racist views having access to “top-secret” level government data.
In response to Vance’s post, Musk said on Friday that Elez “will be brought back” to the DOGE team.
“To err is human, to forgive divine,” Musk added.
In addition to defending his employee’s racist comments, Musk has attacked Katherine Long, the Wall Street Journal reporter who unearthed them. The billionaire issued several posts on X calling for her to be “fired immediately,” and wrongly characterized her reporting as doxxing.
“She’s a disgusting and cruel person,” Musk said in one of his posts.
Musk’s attacks on Long echo comments Trump has made against the press, which have included personal insults and threats against those who publish reports that are critical of him.
Notably, Musk himself has faced widespread backlash for peddling racist and antisemitic views. He was recently accused of performing a Nazi salute twice, and has endorsed the neo-Nazi political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in that country’s upcoming elections. After his purchase of Twitter, now called X, the site saw a spike in neo-Nazi and white supremacist posts, with Musk himself promoting racist content on the platform.
Asked by reporters late last week about bringing Elez back to the fold, Trump said he was supportive of the move, referencing Vance’s post on X.
“I’m with the vice president,” Trump said on Friday.
Antiracist historian Ibram X. Kendi responded to Vance’s characterization of Elez as a “kid” by noting that it was an incredible example of white privilege.
“For White men: Boys will be boys. Don’t ruin his life,” Kendi wrote on Facebook. “For Black boys: Zero tolerance for misbehavior. Try him as an adult.”
“To be racist is to treat White adults like kids and Black kids like adults. To be antiracist is to treat all adults like adults and all kids like kids,” Kendi added.
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