Top DOGE Employee Resigns After Past Racist Tweets Resurface: Report

A key staffer in Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has resigned after a report linked him to racist and eugenics-related comments posted on social media.

Marko Elez, a 25-year-old former employee of SpaceX and X, was one of two DOGE employees granted access to the U.S. Treasury's payment systems earlier on Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Elez was behind a now-deleted X (formerly Twitter) account that posted statements such as "Normalize Indian hate," and "Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool."

"You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity," the account tweeted as recently as September.

The account—deleted in December 2024—also reportedly made inflammatory remarks about Israel and Gaza, including "I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth."

Following inquiries from the Journal, Elez resigned from DOGE, according to a White House spokesperson.

The resignation marks yet another controversy for DOGE, the Musk-led agency tasked with cutting government spending and workforce size under President Donald Trump. The agency has already faced scrutiny over its unprecedented access to sensitive Treasury Department data and allegations of potential privacy, security and conflict-of-interest risks.

Musk has also been criticized outside of his DOGE activities for making what many perceived as a Nazi salute at Trump's inauguration, and for his vocal support of Germany's inflammatory far-right AfD party.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended DOGE in an interview with Bloomberg, insisting that the team is made up of "highly trained professionals" and is focused on efficiency, not ideology.