Elon Musk says he will rehire a DOGE staffer who resigned following the exposure of his posts advocating for racism and eugenics, after Trump endorsed the idea
“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.” — “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.” — “Normalize Indian hate.” — www.wsj.com/tech/doge-st... [embedded post] Ryan Mac / @rmac : kinda funny to think that the racist DOGE guy ended his own career because he just straight up tweeted “yea i'm racist” Phil Williams / @philinvestigates.com : Sources tell WIRED that the ability of DOGE's Marko Elez to alter code controlling trillions in federal spending was rescinded days after US Treasury and White House officials said it didn't exist. www.wired.com/story/treasu... Rima I Anabtawi / @rimaanabtawi : “Representatives from Elon Musk'sU.S. DOGE Service have fed sensitive data fr across the Education Department into artificial intelligence software to probe the agency's programs & spending, according to two people with knowledge of the DOGE team's actions.” — www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/ ... Dell Cameron / @dell : DOGE operative Marko Elez got the ability to alter US Treasury payment system code on Feb 1, WIRED's sources say. — For days, Trump officials fed members of Congress and the press a different story. — Elez is out now for posts reading “I was racist before it was cool” and “normalize Indian hate.” @evacide : Now that's some effective journalism. More of this please. [embedded post] @emptywheel : I feel like every story describing the new ways DOGE [sic] is using AI should start by saying, “this is the same AI that the DOGE [sic] boys used to claim that USAID spend $60M on condoms in Gaza.” — www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/ ... Mike Masnick / @mmasnick : So the inexperienced Musk lackey who briefly had read-write access to the nation's payment system... also turns out to be a racist shitbag? Why... how... unsurprising. [embedded post] Michael Ian Black / @michaelianblack : Slow down, you're saying the guy who sieg heiled at the inauguration and then campaigned for the German far-right AfD hired a racist who advocates for eugenics? That doesn't sound right. www.wsj.com/tech/doge-st... Alex Heath / @alexeheath.com : NEW: The head of the White House tech task force that has been renamed to DOGE just told colleagues in an internal memo that he is resigning instead of “taking the fork” deferred resignation offer for federal employees. — The deadline to accept the offer is today. — www.theverge.com/policy/60760... Threads: Chris Hayes / @chrislhayes : The user appeared to have a special dislike for Indian software engineers. “99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they're going back don't worry guys,” the user posted in December. “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” nullllptr posted in July. X: JD Vance / @jdvance : Here's my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez's posts, but 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 Balaji / @balajis : If possible, Marko Elez (@marko_elez) should be reinstated at DOGE. If that is not possible, we should fund him to do his own startup. Let me explain my logic. 1) First, there can be no negotiation with terrorists — or journalists. Giving a single inch to a journo on anything Elon Musk / @elonmusk : 🫡 He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine. Elon Musk / @elonmusk : Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym? S.E. Robinson, Jr / @serobinsonjr : @elonmusk @DOGE Big Balls deserves a 2nd chance... Seriously though, have a talk to about the racist stuff. Not cool. Deva Hazarika / @devahaz : I'm strongly opposed to trying to cancel people for stupid shit they posted online years ago as teens etc. But this is a 25yo adult posting stuff a few months ago. Don't make silly excuses for it, just say you don't believe views like this should be disqualifying for the role. Noah Kulwin / @nkulw : Not great that the ascendant right-wing idea of the moment is “being openly racist is fine and should not get you in trouble” Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi / @congressmanraja : Advocating for the return of a racist DOGE staffer who has called for, among other things, wanting to “normalize Indian hate” is offensive and irresponsible. Hate should have no home at DOGE or anywhere else for that matter. JD Vance / @jdvance : For the sake of both of our kids? Grow up. 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. @repyvetteclarke : What kind of man stands with a bigot who said “Normalize Indian Hate” when his own wife is an Indian woman? Is scoring points with these creeps so important to the @VP he'll disgrace his own family? And just for the record - if you're a proud racist, you're a bad dude. Period. Benjy Sarlin / @benjysarlin : Political quantum mechanics posits that a 25 year old is both a delicate child who must be protected from their own views and also an important adult who needs to manage the most powerful nation's critical payment system Nic Golden Age Carter / @nic__carter : All I'm saying is if the left can get terrorists and murderers like Susan Rosenberg, Bill Ayers, Angela Davis, Bernadine Dohrn, and Kathy Boudin cushy university jobs, maybe the DOGE guy who made bad tweets can have his job back Matthew Yglesias / @mattyglesias : I favor forgiving people past transgressions but did the Racist DOGE actually repent anything? The tweets in question aren't particularly old. Matthew Yglesias / @mattyglesias : This is so brain-dead. Elez did a bunch of racist posts. Trump and DOGE and the right writ large need to decide for themselves, like adults, whether or not they think that's okay. What their enemies say or do is totally irrelevant. [image] Rep. Jamie Raskin / @repraskin : Which posts do you “disagree” with — “Normalize Indian hate,” “I was racist before it was cool,” “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth,” or “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity”? Brian Tyler Cohen / @briantylercohen : The husband of an Indian-American wife and the father of 3 Indian-American kids wants to bring back the staffer who posted “normalize Indian hate.” Rat King / @mikeisaac : ringing endorsement [image] Armand Domalewski / @armanddoma : how did we swing from “random normal people should have their lives ruined forever because they tweeted something dumb ten years ago” to “guy who explicitly demonstrated a Nazi worldview a few months ago deserves to be one of the most powerful people on the planet” @jebus : Free big balls Smack talking Indians is an American tradition that originates long before the founding Mike Benz / @mikebenzcyber : @elonmusk @DOGE 2 Balls, 2 Chances @endwokeness : @elonmusk @DOGE Yes. We cannot allow the era of cancel culture to return. Christopher F. Rufo / @realchrisrufo : @elonmusk @DOGE Yes, have him apologize to the team (not to the public or the media) and welcome him back. Ian Miles Cheong / @stillgray : @elonmusk @DOGE I don't agree with his views or whatever but he has the right to have them and he isn't hurting anyone with them. It also says nothing about his job performance. Bring him back. Isaac Saul / @ike_saul : Balaji, this is embarrassing dude. They didn't “dig up” some old posts. The posts were from as recently as December. And they weren't subtle. “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.” — July “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity... Normalize Shashank Joshi / @shashj : “A kid”. The DOGE staffer in question 25 years old & the racist posts date from the ancient past of <checks notes> July & September. “Normalise Indian hate.” This is the vice-president normalising explicit, open, unabashed racism. [image] Tero Kuittinen / @teroterotero : Here is another high profile social media personality who believes it's acceptable to give high level positions to people who believe Israel should be wiped off the Earth. I just never expected this to happen in America. Disorienting. @jason : 50%+ of young kids say something stupid online in their youth today This is down from 100% of boys in schoolyards in the 1980s — when we didn't actually have a permanent record (even though they told us Tele did!) Write an apology, say what you learned since then and get back Rat King / @mikeisaac : Valley defenders of DOGE employees spent all last week criticizing people who said they were too young to be in government, and are now defending this guy by saying he's just a kid — don't get to have it both ways Also interesting Trump is nowhere near this discussion Sam Stein / @samstein : i'm having trouble following this. if they all want the guy who made racists tweets to have remained on staff then who decided to let him go in the first place? no one forced them to fire the guy Aidan McLaughlin / @aidnmclaughlin : JD Vance wants to hire a guy who said this in June: “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth.” David Grossman / @davidgross_man : A) Not obvious, actually B) He's 25. Not a kid X) Advocating for someone who is racist against YOUR WIFE is a new level of cucked previously unknown to scientists Robby Soave / @robbysoave : I really, really do not like when people lose their jobs because of idiotic things they tweeted. If Elez Marko had said these things when he was like, 16, I'd be all for ignoring it—I'd even join the mob forming against the WSJ reporter who uncovered it. But he said that stuff a Heidi N. Moore / @moorehn : Extremely surprising that one of Elon's flunkies would resign over racism. Isn't that what his whole operation is centered on? https://www.wsj.com/... [image] @iwillleavenow : I would say “killer vetting process there,” but tbh I thought being a piece of shit was kind of a prerequisite to DOGE employment. https://www.wsj.com/... Katherine Long / @byklong : I linked DOGE staffer Marko Elez to a deleted X account that advocated repealing the Civil Rights Act, backed a “eugenic immigration policy,” and wrote, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity. He just resigned. https://www.wsj.com/... Rachel Van Dongen / @rachelvand : The deleted profile associated with Elez, who was embedded in the Treasury Department to carry out efficiency measures, advocated repealing the Civil Rights Act and backed a “eugenic immigration policy” in the weeks before President Trump was inaugurated. https://www.wsj.com/... Sheel Mohnot / @pitdesi : @DOGE fwiw I think it's great that Doge exists and that we have young people working there. This guy should have been filtered out given that he wants a eugenics based immigration policy. https://www.wsj.com/... Bill Kristol / @billkristol : Racism and eugenics in DOGE world? Color me shocked. https://www.wsj.com/... Sheel Mohnot / @pitdesi : Some tweets from one of the 25-year old guys working on @DOGE “Normalize Indian hate” “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth” “99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they're going back don't worry guys” [image] JM Rieger / @riegerreport : A staffer for Elon Musk's DOGE resigned on Thursday after The Wall Street Journal asked about the staffer's connection to a social-media account that advocated for racism and eugenics. The staffer had access to the Treasury Department's payment systems. https://www.wsj.com/... [image] Forums: r/AkronOH : Embarrassment to Ohio, JD Vance, told Musk to rehire Treasury DOGE staffer behind racist posts. Trump endorses the idea. My friends, we have a Nazi problem. r/inthenews : Musk to rehire Treasury DOGE staffer behind racist posts after Trump endorses idea r/TheSecondTerm : Musk to rehire Treasury DOGE staffer behind racist posts after Trump endorses idea r/Destiny : Vance tells Musk that DOGE staffer who resigned after posting racist tweets should be rehired r/RepublicanValues : Vance tells Musk that DOGE staffer who resigned after posting racist tweets should be rehired r/nottheonion : Vance tells Musk that DOGE staffer who resigned after posting racist tweets should be rehired r/Fuckthealtright : DOGE chief Elon Musk polls X users if staffer who quit over racist tweets should be rehired r/politics : DOGE chief Musk asks X users if staffer who quit over racist tweets should be rehired
The episode matters because it turns an individual personnel controversy into an explicit leadership decision: Musk’s stated rehiring plan has Trump’s public backing, despite the conduct that prompted Elez’s departure.
First-order effects
Elez is positioned to return to DOGE, reversing the practical consequence of his resignation and signaling that Musk and Trump do not view the posts as disqualifying for this role.
DOGE and the Treasury-facing team face renewed scrutiny over vetting and access controls, given reports that Elez had access to code tied to parts of the federal payment system.
Second-order effects
The reversal raises the reputational and workforce-management burden for agencies working with DOGE: staff and institutional partners must operate under leadership standards that now differ from the initial response to the posts.
Congress and outside critics have a clearer focal point for oversight of DOGE personnel practices, particularly where staff are placed near sensitive government systems.
Third-order effects
If politically backed reinstatements become a recurring pattern, DOGE’s operating model may increasingly depend on leader-driven personnel discretion rather than conventional institutional accountability.
The broader test will be whether access to high-impact government technology becomes governed more by centralized political sponsorship or by durable vetting and control processes.
The trend: This is one data point in the consolidation of politically sponsored technology operators inside government, where personnel governance and system-access governance become inseparable.
Musk has sicced his followers on the WSJ writer who reported on a DOGE staffer's racist online, history demanding her firing. This is a tactic Silicon Valley's neoreactionaries have been advocating for years: Pick a reporter, dox and harrass, make an example of them, make everyo…
I've written for years that we should be more forgiving of old social media posts. Otherwise, we freeze people in the worst versions of themselves. But when the ugly posts are from the last *half-year*, that's obviously not old news: that's evidence of a person who needs to cha…
Among the statements last year by ex-DOGE staffer Marko Elez: — “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.” — “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.” — “Normalize Indian hate.” — www.wsj.com/tech/doge-st... [embedded post]
Sources tell WIRED that the ability of DOGE's Marko Elez to alter code controlling trillions in federal spending was rescinded days after US Treasury and White House officials said it didn't exist. www.wired.com/story/treasu...
“Representatives from Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service have fed sensitive data fr across the Education Department into artificial intelligence software to probe the agency's programs & spending, according to two people with knowledge of the DOGE team's actions.” — www.washingtonpo…
DOGE operative Marko Elez got the ability to alter US Treasury payment system code on Feb 1, WIRED's sources say. — For days, Trump officials fed members of Congress and the press a different story. — Elez is out now for posts reading “I was racist before it was cool” and “no…
I feel like every story describing the new ways DOGE [sic] is using AI should start by saying, “this is the same AI that the DOGE [sic] boys used to claim that USAID spend $60M on condoms in Gaza.” — www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/ ...
So the inexperienced Musk lackey who briefly had read-write access to the nation's payment system... also turns out to be a racist shitbag? Why... how... unsurprising. [embedded post]
Slow down, you're saying the guy who sieg heiled at the inauguration and then campaigned for the German far-right AfD hired a racist who advocates for eugenics? That doesn't sound right. www.wsj.com/tech/doge-st...
NEW: The head of the White House tech task force that has been renamed to DOGE just told colleagues in an internal memo that he is resigning instead of “taking the fork” deferred resignation offer for federal employees. — The deadline to accept the offer is today. — www.theve…
The user appeared to have a special dislike for Indian software engineers. “99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they're going back don't worry guys,” the user posted in December. “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” nullllptr posted…
Here's my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez's posts, but 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
If possible, Marko Elez (@marko_elez) should be reinstated at DOGE. If that is not possible, we should fund him to do his own startup. Let me explain my logic. 1) First, there can be no negotiation with terrorists — or journalists. Giving a single inch to a journo on anything
I'm strongly opposed to trying to cancel people for stupid shit they posted online years ago as teens etc. But this is a 25yo adult posting stuff a few months ago. Don't make silly excuses for it, just say you don't believe views like this should be disqualifying for the role.
Advocating for the return of a racist DOGE staffer who has called for, among other things, wanting to “normalize Indian hate” is offensive and irresponsible. Hate should have no home at DOGE or anywhere else for that matter.
For the sake of both of our kids? Grow up. 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.
What kind of man stands with a bigot who said “Normalize Indian Hate” when his own wife is an Indian woman? Is scoring points with these creeps so important to the @VP he'll disgrace his own family? And just for the record - if you're a proud racist, you're a bad dude. Period.
Political quantum mechanics posits that a 25 year old is both a delicate child who must be protected from their own views and also an important adult who needs to manage the most powerful nation's critical payment system
All I'm saying is if the left can get terrorists and murderers like Susan Rosenberg, Bill Ayers, Angela Davis, Bernadine Dohrn, and Kathy Boudin cushy university jobs, maybe the DOGE guy who made bad tweets can have his job back
This is so brain-dead. Elez did a bunch of racist posts. Trump and DOGE and the right writ large need to decide for themselves, like adults, whether or not they think that's okay. What their enemies say or do is totally irrelevant. [image]
Which posts do you “disagree” with — “Normalize Indian hate,” “I was racist before it was cool,” “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth,” or “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity”?
how did we swing from “random normal people should have their lives ruined forever because they tweeted something dumb ten years ago” to “guy who explicitly demonstrated a Nazi worldview a few months ago deserves to be one of the most powerful people on the planet”
@elonmusk @DOGE I don't agree with his views or whatever but he has the right to have them and he isn't hurting anyone with them. It also says nothing about his job performance. Bring him back.
Balaji, this is embarrassing dude. They didn't “dig up” some old posts. The posts were from as recently as December. And they weren't subtle. “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.” — July “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity... Normalize
“A kid”. The DOGE staffer in question 25 years old & the racist posts date from the ancient past of <checks notes> July & September. “Normalise Indian hate.” This is the vice-president normalising explicit, open, unabashed racism. [image]
Here is another high profile social media personality who believes it's acceptable to give high level positions to people who believe Israel should be wiped off the Earth. I just never expected this to happen in America. Disorienting.
50%+ of young kids say something stupid online in their youth today This is down from 100% of boys in schoolyards in the 1980s — when we didn't actually have a permanent record (even though they told us Tele did!) Write an apology, say what you learned since then and get back
Valley defenders of DOGE employees spent all last week criticizing people who said they were too young to be in government, and are now defending this guy by saying he's just a kid — don't get to have it both ways Also interesting Trump is nowhere near this discussion
i'm having trouble following this. if they all want the guy who made racists tweets to have remained on staff then who decided to let him go in the first place? no one forced them to fire the guy
A) Not obvious, actually B) He's 25. Not a kid X) Advocating for someone who is racist against YOUR WIFE is a new level of cucked previously unknown to scientists
I really, really do not like when people lose their jobs because of idiotic things they tweeted. If Elez Marko had said these things when he was like, 16, I'd be all for ignoring it—I'd even join the mob forming against the WSJ reporter who uncovered it. But he said that stuff a
Extremely surprising that one of Elon's flunkies would resign over racism. Isn't that what his whole operation is centered on? https://www.wsj.com/... [image]
I would say “killer vetting process there,” but tbh I thought being a piece of shit was kind of a prerequisite to DOGE employment. https://www.wsj.com/...
I linked DOGE staffer Marko Elez to a deleted X account that advocated repealing the Civil Rights Act, backed a “eugenic immigration policy,” and wrote, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity. He just resigned. https://www.wsj.com/...
The deleted profile associated with Elez, who was embedded in the Treasury Department to carry out efficiency measures, advocated repealing the Civil Rights Act and backed a “eugenic immigration policy” in the weeks before President Trump was inaugurated. https://www.wsj.com/...
@DOGE fwiw I think it's great that Doge exists and that we have young people working there. This guy should have been filtered out given that he wants a eugenics based immigration policy. https://www.wsj.com/...
Some tweets from one of the 25-year old guys working on @DOGE “Normalize Indian hate” “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth” “99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they're going back don't worry guys” [image]
A staffer for Elon Musk's DOGE resigned on Thursday after The Wall Street Journal asked about the staffer's connection to a social-media account that advocated for racism and eugenics. The staffer had access to the Treasury Department's payment systems. https://www.wsj.com/... [i…
Embarrassment to Ohio, JD Vance, told Musk to rehire Treasury DOGE staffer behind racist posts. Trump endorses the idea. My friends, we have a Nazi problem.