Elon Musk has announced the reinstatement of Marko Elez, a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer after his resignation over past racist social media posts. Musk, who leads the government cost-cutting initiative under President Donald Trump, defended Elez’s return, citing the need for forgiveness.
“To err is human, to forgive divine,” Musk posted on X, the platform he owns after a poll showed strong public support for Elez’s reinstatement.
From what is understood, Elez, 25, resigned after The Wall Street Journal linked him to a now-deleted social media account that contained racist and inflammatory comments. Posts attributed to the account included statements such as “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool” and “Normalise Indian hate.”
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Marko Elez had resigned from his role. His departure came amid a legal battle over his access to sensitive taxpayer information and Treasury Department systems that process trillions of dollars in payments annually, media reports suggested. It is understood that Elez is a Rutgers University computer science graduate and has co-founded Unimetrics.io, a platform designed to connect high school students with mentors to enhance their college applications. He previously worked for Elon Musk at SpaceX, contributing to Starlink satellites, and later at X, where his focus was on artificial intelligence, according to archived records from his website cited by The Wall Street Journal.
Vice President JD Vance also supported Elez’s return, arguing that social media missteps should not permanently damage someone’s career. “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 wrote on X. Vance also took a stance against journalists commenting that “ We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever.”
According to media reports, Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) criticised Vice President JD
Vance for defending Marko Elez, particularly in light of his past anti-Indian remarks. Khanna subtly challenged Vance’s characterisation of Elez as just a ‘kid’ at the time of the posts, suggesting that Elez should issue a public apology ‘for the sake of both our kids.’ In response, Vance accused Khanna of engaging in ‘emotional blackmail.’ Elez’s reinstatement comes amid growing scrutiny of DOGE’s restructuring efforts. While Musk’s initiative aims to streamline government operations, it has faced significant resistance, including a federal court ruling blocking incentives designed to encourage mass resignations within government agencies.