Elon Musk reinstated a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) aide Friday, just one day after the staffer resigned following reports that he operated an inflammatory social media account.
The aide, 25-year-old Marko Elez, had stepped down Thursday after The Wall Street Journal linked him to a pseudonymous X account reportedly containing racist posts. His return followed a Friday morning poll by Musk asking users whether to rehire Elez, with 78% of over 385,000 participants voting yes. Vice President JD Vance also backed Elez’s reinstatement, arguing “we shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people.”
“He will be brought back,” Musk wrote. “To err is human, to forgive divine.”
Elez had reportedly made multiple inflammatory remarks in the now-deleted posts, including calls to “normalize Indian hate.” The user also bragged that he was “racist before it was cool,” adding that “you couldn’t pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” according to the outlet.
“I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” the vice president wrote after Musk’s poll closed. “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.”
Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna, a child of Indian immigrants, responded by asking Vance if Elez would have to apologize as a prerequisite for his reinstatement, adding, “Just asking for the sake of both of our kids.” Vance, whose wife is also the child of Indian immigrants, responded in a series of posts.
“For the sake of both of our kids? Grow up,” Vance wrote. “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.”
“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,” the vice president continued. “You disgust me.”
Asked about Vance’s support for the reinstatement, President Donald Trump echoed the vice president during a White House press conference with Shigeru Ishida, Japan’s prime minister.
“Well, I don’t know about the particular thing, but if the vice president said that — did you say that? I’m with the vice president,” Trump said.
Over the past week, Elez emerged at the center of a legal row over DOGE’s access to sensitive payment systems and taxpayer data in the Treasury Department. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly agreed Thursday to temporarily limit Elez and other DOGE staffers’ ability to share Treasury data outside the department, but allowed them continued “read-only” access.
Elez graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in computer science and later went on to work at SpaceX, specifically on its Starlink satellites, according to The Wall Street Journal. He later worked for Musk again at X, where he focused on artificial intelligence.
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