A member of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by billionaire Elon Musk, reportedly resigned on Thursday after The Wall Street Journal inquired with the White House about his association with a social media account that promoted racism and eugenics.
Newsweek reached out to DOGE via email for comment.
Why It Matters
DOGE, a task force led by Musk, President Donald Trump‘s billionaire ally, is working to cut wasteful federal spending. DOGE has been granted access to “sensitive Treasury data,” including Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems, the Associated Press reported.
Musk has been working as a “special government employee,” a White House Official told the AP. He does not receive a paycheck for his work.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
What To Know
Marko Elez, 25, resigned Thursday from DOGE, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Wall Street Journal.
“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” the account on X, formerly Twitter, connected to Elez posted in July, according to the Journal’s review of archived posts.
The X account, @nullllptr, a playoff of a keyword in the C++ programming language, allegedly advocated for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act and also backed a “eugenic immigration policy.”
@nullllptr was deleted from X in December. The account previously had the username @marko_elez, and the user described themselves as an employee at SpaceX and Starlink.
Elez’s current X account is @marko_elez. It joined the platform in February of 2024 and has no posts at the time of writing.
“Normalize Indian hate,” @nullllptr wrote in September, reportedly about a post noting the predominance of people from India in California’s Silicon Valley.
The user posted in June, “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth.”
Earlier Thursday, a federal judge approved Elez and another DOGE staff member to access the U.S. Treasury payment system. However, the approval restricted Elez’s ability to share data from the system.
Elez was also at the center of a legal batter over the sensitive taxpayer information.
Who Is Marko Elez?
Elez graduated from Rutgers University in 2021 with a degree in computer science.
During his sophomore year, he cofounded a company that connected high schoolers with mentors who could help with their college applications.
He then worked for Musk at SpaceX, Starlink and X. Elez worked on search AI.
The Daily Beast reports that Elez has wiped most of his online presence, including his LinkedIn page. That said, so have other DOGE staffers who have been identified recently.
Democratic Response to DOGE
On Monday, top Democrats called out the “unelected shadow government” that has been “conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government.”
“We are pulling the fire alarm,” Senator Patty Murray said.
On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries unveiled a new bill called “Stop the Steal,” which they say is “to prevent unlawful meddling in the Treasury Department’s payment systems and protect Americans across the country.”
The bill was filed in response to DOGE gaining access to the U.S. Treasury payment system, which is responsible for 1 billion payments per year totaling $5 trillion. It includes sensitive information involving bank accounts and Social Security payments.
“Whatever DOGE is doing, it’s not democracy,” Schumer said. “You don’t have a small group of select people who have little experience of the branches of government, have access to these records and ability to cut funding.”
Representatives Maxwell Frost of Florida, Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island posted a video of themselves at the Treasury Department later in the day asking “to be let in to provide oversight on behalf of our constituents.”
Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts also shared a video of her chanting with a crowd: “Elon Musk has got to go.”
Elon Musk’s New Prominence In Politics
Since Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, Musk has been an ever-growing presence in U.S. politics, joining rallies, speaking out on social media, and now heading DOGE.
Musk urged lawmakers to vote down an original bipartisan spending bill in December and said any lawmaker who supported it should be voted out of office. At one point, some Republican lawmakers called for Musk to become House speaker. He has also been at the center of the ongoing H-1B visa program debate.
More recently, Musk announced that the USAID would shut down.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent approved Musk’s access to the Treasury on Friday. It allows him and his team entry into a system responsible for trillions of dollars in government payments, including Social Security checks and tax refunds.
Musk has changed the bio on his X account to read “White House tech support.”
What People Are Saying
Bill Kristol, the director of Defending Democracy Together, on X: “Racism and eugenics in DOGE world? Color me shocked.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg regarding vetting one of the two Treasury employees from DOGE: “These are highly trained professionals. This is not some roving band running around doing things.”
Representative Hakeem Jeffries at a press conference on Tuesday: “It’s unfortunate that many of our Republican colleagues are willing to stand up a shadow government of the billionaires, by the billionaires and for the billionaires.”
Senator Chuck Schumer at a press conference on Monday: “Donald Trump gave DOGE access to America’s personal refund data. He gave DOGE access to people’s Medicare and Medicaid benefits, disability data, veteran benefit data. Worst of all, we don’t know what DOGE intends to do with this information.”
Elon Musk, on X: “Obviously, @DOGE is trying to STOP your tax dollars from being stolen for WASTE and FRAUD. @RepJeffries wants that to continue.”
Senator Patty Murray, at a press conference Monday: “Make no mistake, Trump and Musk have absolutely zero, zero legal authority to hold up any legal payments that are law…We are pulling the fire alarm. It is up to Republicans, who are the majority in Congress who are passing these nominations, who are sitting silently by while Elon Musk goes into departments, into agencies and takes your information. It is up to them to decide whether they want to get out the fire hoses or sit in the fire.”
What Happens Next
The “Stop the Steal Act” will be introduced into the House and Senate. According to Schumer, the Senate will have “shadow hearings” and talk with whistleblowers.
Update 2/6/25, 6:36 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
