- Elon Musk is polling X users on whether to reinstate a DOGE employee who resigned after being linked to a social media account that shared racist content. The poll comes amid growing concerns over DOGE's cost-cutting measures impacting government agencies.
Elon Musk appears to be considering reinstating a DOGE employee who resigned after being linked to a social media account that shared racist content and advocated for eugenics.
The billionaire set up a poll on his X account that asked users to vote on the question: "Bring back @DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym?" At the time of writing, the poll was at 78% yes and 22% no.
The statements Musk appears to be referring to include posts calling to normalize “Indian hate,” one suggesting Gaza and Israel be “wiped off the face of the Earth,” and another that said: “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.”
The now-deleted account was linked to 25-year-old DOGE employee Marko Elez in a Wall Street Journal report. The White House later confirmed to multiple outlets Elez had resigned in the wake of the revelation.
According to the outlet’s review of archived social media posts, Elez posted on X in July: “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.”
An archived version of another X account linked to Elez, reviewed by Fortune, identified him as an X employee working on AI and a former SpaceX staffer.
Musk has a history of following through on his public polls. He previously polled users about whether to reinstate President Donald Trump's X account back in 2022 and did so shortly after the poll closed.
Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DOGE is tearing through government agencies
Musk's cost-cutting DOGE team appears to be made up of primarily young software engineers. The team has been moving through government agencies over the last two weeks, in some cases accessing confidential information.
Trump has praised the team's actions, but DOGE has also sparked criticism from both sides of the political spectrum.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said in a recent social media post: "Efficiency in government should be a goal for every administration, agency, and federal employee. But how we achieve it also matters."
“By circumventing proper channels and procedures, and creating the potential to compromise the sensitive data of Americans, we create a tremendous amount of unnecessary anxiety. That is wrong. Good governance is based on trust, not fear," Murkowski wrote.
USAID workers, the first agency targeted by DOGE, have also expressed concerns about the team. Two USAID workers told Fortune the team entered the agency's headquarters and asked some workers to justify their jobs.
Mark Cuban has also addressed Musk's actions within the U.S. government.
"Anyone consider that maybe Elon’s mission, is for Elon to get what he wants, rather than the country to get what you voted for," Cuban said in a post on X. "It’s not a shock for Elon, or anyone, to put their personal goals first. Elon seems to be on a mission to protect brand Elon at all costs."
