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President Donald Trump said on Friday that he agreed with Vice President JD Vance about bringing back a recent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer.
The 25-year-old recent employee Marko Elez, according to the Wall Street Journal, resigned from his role at DOGE following the newspaper’s reporting that linked him to a social media account with posts supporting racism and eugenics.
When a reporter in the East Room asked, “The vice president says, ‘bring him back,’ what do you say?” Trump was quick to respond, “Well, I don’t know about the particular thing, but if the vice president said that, I’m with the vice president.”
Soon after, Elon Musk posted on X: “He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine.”
Vance said on X earlier Friday said that he would support the rehiring of Elez.
“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 wrote. “We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever,” Vance’s post read.
“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,” Vance concluded.
Some background: An account that appeared to be linked to Elez, who previously worked for Musk’s SpaceX company, posted a call to repeal the Civil Rights Act, an endorsement of a “eugenic” immigration policy and repeated anti-Indian screeds within the last year, archived posts show.
The racist messages were posted on an X account with the username @nullllptr, which has since been deleted, according to online archives of the site.
CNN has made multiple attempts to reach Elez to ask him about the postings, but has been unsuccessful.
CNN’s Casey Tolan and Andrew Kaczynski contributed reporting to this post, which has been updated with background on Elez’s posts.