Musk says he'll bring back DOGE staffer under fire for racist posts

Elon Musk said Friday he will rehire a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer who resigned after several of the aide's racist social media posts were exposed.

"He will be brought back," Musk posted on X, the social media platform he purchased in 2022.

"To err is human, to forgive divine."

The DOGE staffer, Marko Elez, resigned Thursday after The Wall Street Journal revealed several racist posts he appeared to have made from a now-deleted account.

“Normalize Indian hate,” the account associated with Elez posted in September.

Another post read, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity," the Journal reported.

Musk's decision to rehire Elez came after Vice President Vance — whose wife, Usha, is the daughter of Indian immigrants — said the DOGE staffer deserved a second chance.

“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,” Vance said on X, responding to a poll Musk created asking whether Elez, who is 25, should be rehired.

“We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back," Vance continued. “If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that,” he added.

President Trump also backed Elez's rehiring when asked about the situation during a White House press conference.

Trump said that while he wasn't familiar with the controversy, Vance's support for Elez was enough to convince him.

"I'm with the vice president," Trump said.

The rehiring of Elez is sure to bring additional scrutiny to his position at the Treasury Department, where he was authorized to access the critical federal payment system.

Elez is one of two DOGE-affiliated staffers approved by the Justice Department to have access to systems run by the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which oversees trillions of dollars in federal payments.

DOGE's presence in the Fiscal Service has raised alarms among experts and Democratic lawmakers, who fear it could be used to halt legally mandated payments that are unfavorable to Trump or his administration.

Several federal employee unions have also sued the Treasury Department, arguing the presence of DOGE officials compromises a trove of confidential information.