DOGE Treasury Agent Reportedly Resigns After Racist Posts: Here’s What To Know About Musk’s Agency
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Key DOGE Official Quits After Racist Posts Surface
Above: Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives on Capitol Hill on Dec. 5, 2024 in Washington DC. Image copyright: Anna Moneymaker/Staff/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
Marko Elez, a 25-year-old software engineer working for Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), resigned Thursday after The Wall Street Journal linked him to racist posts on X, including some statements backing eugenics.
Before his resignation, a federal judge on Thursday granted Elez access to the Treasury Department's sensitive payment system (which processes trillions of dollars annually), but with restrictions on data sharing capabilities.
Elez's X account @nullllptr — previously named @marko_elez — contained posts including "Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool," shared in July and "Normalize Indian hate" in September, among other inflammatory statements.
The Spin
Narrative A
DOGE represents an unaccountable shadow government with unprecedented access to sensitive personal and financial data of millions of Americans, operating without proper oversight or transparency. The placement of individuals with extreme views in positions of authority poses significant risks to government integrity and civil rights.
Narrative B
Despite the offensive and racist remarks of DOGE staffer Marko Elez, mainstream discourse shouldn't risk broadening attribution of his actions to the whole of the Trump administration. A rush to label the administration as racist could distort meaningful discussion, and risks alienating millions whose disenfranchisement has already led them to resonate with populist politics.