Elon Musk on Friday said that his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will bring back a fired staffer who made “inappropriate” social media posts as Vice President JD Vance on Friday said he wanted him to return to the organization.
“He will be brought back,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns. “To err is human, to forgive divine.”
Earlier, Vance wrote on the platform that appeared to confirm a Wall Street Journal report this week citing anonymous sources saying that DOGE staffer Marko Elez resigned over now-deleted social media posts.
In a post on X, responding to a poll released by Musk to reinstate Elez, 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,” the vice president wrote. “So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”
The poll from Musk, which gave X users a binary choice on whether to bring back Elez over “inappropriate posts” that were made via a now-deleted anonymous account, showed that 78 percent of respondents wanted him reinstated. Twenty-two percent disagreed, according to the poll.
While neither Musk nor Vance went into detail about Elez’s posts, the WSJ report said that he made comments on an alternate account in 2024 on sensitive topics, including that he would not “marry outside” his ethnicity. He also allegedly wrote in a separate post, “Normalize Indian hate,” among other comments.
The WSJ journalist involved in one report, Katherine Long, faced criticism on X from several prominent accounts who are often boosted by Musk’s account. They suggested that Long engaged in doxxing—the malicious act of publicly revealing a person’s private information online without prior consent—and noted that her LinkedIn profile shows she previously worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Tajikistan as well as the U.S. State Department about a decade ago.
“Now she’s abusing her platform to go after DOGE team,” wrote Mario Nawfal, a prominent X account with more than 2 million followers. “Should a USAID-linked operative still have White House access?”
Musk on Friday reposted a comment from Ian Miles Cheong, another account with millions of followers, who claimed that Long is still working for USAID. However, a review of her LinkedIn page suggests she stopped working at the agency in 2016. Nonetheless, Musk said that her activity is “certainly improper” and “possibly criminal.”
USAID has been in the crosshairs of the new Trump administration in recent days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio took over the agency earlier this month as its acting director, while President Donald Trump and Musk have signaled they want to gut the agency.
Earlier this week, USAID said it placed all direct hire personnel to be placed on “administrative leave globally” other than those handling essential responsibilities. After taking office on Jan. 20, Trump also placed a 90-day pause on all U.S. foreign aid and development funding that had not been reviewed beforehand.
Meanwhile, Long appeared to respond to some of the comments on her work in a post on X.
“This is a good time to note that I started at the Wall Street Journal last week! If you work with or around DOGE, I'd love to speak with you,” she wrote on X on Thursday, adding separately that she previously worked for Business Insider and left the outlet last month.
The Epoch Times has contacted the White House press office and Long for comment.
