Billionaire Elon Musk’s has said that he plans to rehire former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee Marko Elez, who was fired for posting racist remarks.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Elez resigned on Thursday after his racist social media posts resurfaced online. One of the posts, from his now-deleted account, had said, “Normalize Indian hate.” Another read, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.”
One of the posts of the former DOGE employee from July also read, “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.”
Notably, Musk, vice president JD Vance and President Donald Trump all called for Elez’s return to his federal government job.
‘To err is human, to forgive divine’
The Tesla CEO took to X and posted a poll asking, “Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?” The poll received 78 per cent positive response, with just 22 per cent choosing the ‘No’ option.
Vice president Vance posted his view on the poll and the call for Elez’s rehiring, saying that though he disagrees with the former DOGE employee’s posts, “I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life”.
“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,” Vance’s said in his post on X.
After this, Musk announced that he would rehire Elez. “He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine.”
President Trump was also asked about Vance’s post on Friday, to which he replied saying, “I’m with the vice president.”
Notably, VP Vance’s remarks on Elez also gained traction due to his Indian-origin wife Usha Vance. She is the first Indian-American Second Lady of the United States.
Vance’s opinion on former DOGE employee Elez drew ire from Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna, asking whether he would apologise for his post on Indian hate, before being rehired.
“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 remarked.
JD Vance responded to Khanna’s remark and said, “For the sake of both of our kids? Grow up.” He said that though racist trolls on social media and the internet are offensive, they do not threaten his 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,” he added.
Earlier this week, Treasury secretary Scott Bessent expressed confidence in the people Musk has sent to his agency. Notably, the White House has not yet confirmed whether Elez has been rehired.
As per a Bloomberg report, another DOGE staffer, 19-year-old Edward Coristine is also a talk among officials as he was fired from an internship after being accused of sharing information with a competitor.
(with agency inputs)
