‘Bring him back’: JD Vance wants to rehire 25-year-DOGE employee who promoted racism and eugenics last year

Vice President J. D. Vance openly called for the reinstatement of 25-year-old DOGE employee Marko Elez, who resigned after his social media posts advocating racism and eugenics last year resurfaced.

Elez is one of several young DOGE employees granted access to sensitive and classified government information under Elon Musk’s leadership. He was appointed to the U.S. Treasury and given access to the federal pay systems that manage the flow of trillions of dollars. The extent of his access was unclear, as insiders suggested he was given “admin privileges” over Social Security payments, tax returns, veteran’s pay, and more. Hours after insiders alleged his admin access, The Wall Street Journal linked him to a deleted X account where he posted numerous hateful and racist posts as recently as December of 2024. Among the Tweets, he expressed opposition to biracial marriage, called for normalizing “Indian hate,” and expressed interest in a “eugenics immigration policy.”

After the White House was notified of his posts, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed he had resigned from DOGE. It’s presumed that White House officials pushed him to do so. However, hours later, Musk and Vance called for his rehiring.

J. D. Vance brushes off Marko Elez’s racist posts

Shortly after news of Elez’s resignation arose, Musk’s shockingly flippant response was to post a poll to X questioning if he should rehire him. It was even more surprising when the Vice President of the United States reshared Musk’s poll, responding, “I say bring him back.” While he claimed not to agree with “some” of Elez’s posts, his reasoning for rehiring was: “I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life.” It’s pretty interesting that Vance refers to Elez as a “kid” and tries to make it sound like he made the posts when he was a “stupid” teenager or something. He fails to mention that the “kid” was a 25-year-old man and college graduate who made some of these posts less than two months ago.

Vance’s stance is especially surprising, given that Elez’s posts targeted people like him and his wife. Elez expressed disgust toward the idea of biracial marriage and advocated for “Indian hate.” Meanwhile, Vance is married to Usha Vance, the first Indian-American Second Lady in the U.S. Vance should know that rehiring Elez isn’t about rehiring someone who made a “stupid” mistake. Rehiring him will send a message to every other hateful individual in America that there will be no more consequences for anyone who spreads hatred and racism online. It’s well-known that racism and hate speech on social media have been linked to increases in physical violence towards minorities. Vance is willing to risk an uptick in anti-Indian sentiment on social media by bringing someone back into the U.S. government who wants to “normalize Indian hate,” and for what?

It’s laughable that Vance claims Elez’s life will be “ruined” and “destroyed.” On social media, the journalist who outed him is getting more hatred than him. He became MAGA’s hero overnight and still appears to be employed by X. If he were a Black man who advocated for normalizing hatred against whites or a woman who advocated normalizing hatred against men, it would be a completely different story. However, since Elez is a white man, he has the Vice President of the United States vouching for his return.

One also must ask how Vance reaches his conclusions on what makes someone a “kid.” It’s well-known he’s an extreme pro-lifer who supports abortion bans and has repeatedly shown opposition to exceptions to abortion laws, even for victims of incest and rape. By his logic, a 10-year-old child is apparently “old enough” to give birth to and raise her abuser’s child. Yet, he also thinks a 25-year-old grown man is a “kid” who’s too little to understand that racism is wrong and shouldn’t be posted publicly on social media. It seems someone is only a “kid” when they suit his agenda. He also doesn’t seem to realize how his post contradicts himself. One can’t claim Elez is a little child prone to “stupid” social media mistakes, but in the same breath, suggest he should be rehired to DOGE and given access to the government’s most sensitive and classified information.