J.D. Vance and Musk Tag Team to Restore Racist DOGE Bro to Government

The Vice President and Elon Musk, the de-facto head of government under Donald Trump, are tag teaming on social media to promote the reinstatement of Marko Elez, a key Musk deputy who departed his post inside the Treasury Department amid a Wall Street Journal exposé linking him to racist social media posts, including the boast: “I was racist before it was cool.”

Elez, a 25-year-old programmer and alum of Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, has been at the center of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s intrusion into sensitive payments systems at Treasury. While DOGE’s mission at Treasury is opaque, Democratic senators are concerned Musk and his deputies seek the ability to shut off federal payments, down to the level of an individual Social Security check. (Elez was recently named in a federal court order limiting DOGE’s access, establishing that only Elez and a DOGE colleague can access Treasury records, on a “read only” basis.)

As The Wall Street Journal was about to go to press with its scoop, Elez resigned his post in government. On Friday, Musk — whose X handle now reads “White House Tech Support” — began what appears to be a campaign for Elez’ return.

Musk began running a poll on his social network (formerly known as Twitter) asking: “Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?”

The poll received the attention of Vice President J.D. Vance, who sought to influence the results by personally lobbying for Elez:

“Here’s my view,” Vance wrote. “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.” He added of the 25-year-old man, whose offensive posts reportedly date to last year: “If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”

Vance, it should be noted, is married to a woman of Indian heritage. And one of Elez’ odious posts reportedly said: “Normalize Indian hate,” and, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.” 

Elez also reportedly posted against the H1-B visa, used by tech companies to employ skilled foreign programmers — a program defended by Musk even in the face of the MAGA anti-immigrant crusade. Elez reportedly wrote in December. “99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs,” adding: “They’re going back don’t worry guys.”

Musk has also targeted the Wall Street Journal reporter on the Elez report over her past connection to USAID, the agency Musk has successfully sent to the “wood chipper,” suggesting that her previous involvement in projects relating to the agency years ago makes her reporting on Elez “Certainly improper, possibly criminal.”

Rolling Stone reached out to Elez earlier in the week asking about his role at Treasury and did not hear back. He did not immediately respond to a followup about Vance’s call for his reinstatement.