‘Normalise Indian hate’: Member of Elon Musk’s DOGE quits after old ‘racist’ tweets resurface on social media

A top employee at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency resigned after facing backlash over his previous ‘racist’ social media posts, news outlet NPR reported. In his now-deleted posts, the DOGE staffer, Marko Elez, urged people to “normalise Indian hate” and also objected to the United States' stance on immigration in the past.

Marko Elez of DOGE worked closely with the United States Treasury Department and had access to highly sensitive data, including the banking details of millions of Americans.

Ex-DOGE staffer's comments on ‘Indian hate’, ‘eugenic immigration’, etc

According to an NPR report, a social media account connected to Marko Elez posted, “Normalize Indian hate,” in September 2024. The context of the post and what triggered it are not clear.
In another social media post, Marko Elez targeted the previous US government over immigration policy and wrote, “I just want a eugenic immigration policy, is that too much to ask.”

“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” NPR quoted Elez's social media post made in July last year. “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” read another post.

Who is Marko Elez, DOGE staffer facing backlash over racist comments?

Marko Elez is a twenty-five year-old software engineer who was appointed as a top official at DOGE. He was working inside Treasury Department to improve its efficiency by cutting costs and eliminating fraud.

Reports suggest that he has close ties with Elon Musk as he had previously worked for Musk’s SpaceX and social-media platform X. According to Bloomberg report, a US judge, on Thursday, limited the access of DOGE staffers to Treasury department's payment systems.

As per the order, two “special government employees” will have “read-only” access to Treasury, including Tom Krause, the chief executive of Cloud Software Group Inc., and Marko Elez. However, Elez may lose the access after his resignation is accepted.

Rising concern over Elon Musk's DOGE initiative

A White House official confirmed Marko Elez's resignation to NPR. Following the appointment of Elez and other people as DOGE staff, Elon Musk's initiative was questioned by several lawmakers. Two unions of the federal employees and another group filed a lawsuite against Treasury Department over violation of privacy laws, according to the NP report.