Marko Elez | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1999/2000(age 25–26) |
| Education | Rutgers University |
| Occupation(s) | Software engineer, Department of Government Efficiency |
Marko Elez (born 1999 or 2000) is an American software engineer and a government employee as part of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He came under public scrutiny after being granted administrator-level access to critical U.S. Treasury payment systems, despite having no previous experience in government or finance. [1]
Raised in Montgomery Township, New Jersey, Elez graduated from Montgomery High School in 2018. [2] He graduated from Rutgers University in 2021, where he studied software development and distributed systems. [1] After graduating, Elez worked at SpaceX, where he was involved in vehicle telemetry, Starship software, and satellite systems. [3] He later joined X (formerly Twitter), focusing on search AI and software development. He also began working at xAI, where he was listed as an active employee as of February 2025. [4] His work experience prior to DOGE was exclusively within Elon Musk's companies. [5]
Elez was appointed to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and subsequently given administrator-level access to the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). [1] His privileges allowed him to modify critical financial infrastructure, despite concerns from Treasury officials and lawmakers. In early February 2025, Elez visited a Treasury facility in Kansas City, meeting with BFS staff and gaining deeper insight into the federal payment processing system. [6] [7] His access to treasury systems was restricted on February 5. [8]
Concerns remain that DOGE's influence could allow for politically motivated financial decisions. [5] Treasury officials revoked Elez's system access on February 5. In court filings on February 11, the Treasury Department acknowledged that Elez had been inadvertently granted read/write permissions to the payment system, revising their previous assertion that he had only read-only access. [9] [10] The government maintained that Elez had not used his ability to edit treasury systems. [11] [12]
Elez resigned from DOGE on February 6, 2025, after being linked to a now-deleted social media account containing racist content; the account had also posted in support of eugenics. [13] The Tweets made by the account, under the handle @nullllptr, [13] included statements such as "I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth" in June 2024 and "Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool" in July 2024. In September 2024, shortly before the account's deletion, it posted, "You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity" and "Normalize Indian hate." [14] [15] [16]
The following day, Elon Musk initiated a poll on X asking users whether Elez should be rehired. [17] [18] The majority of the 385,000 X users polled said that Elez should be rehired. [19] Musk stated that "to err is human, to forgive divine." [20] [21]
Vice President JD Vance subsequently advocated for Elez's reinstatement. [22] [23] [24] Vance wrote in a post on X that while he did not agree "with some of Elez's posts... I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life." [25] President Donald Trump endorsed Vance's position at a news conference, after which Musk announced Elez's reinstatement. [26] [27] [28] Some Indian American groups protested the decision to rehire Elez. [29] U.S. representative Ro Khanna challenged JD Vance directly over the decision. [30] [31]
Elez subsequently appeared on a roster of DOGE employees, with a government email address linked to the Executive Office of the President. [32] Later that week, he was reportedly reinstated at the Social Security Administration. [33]
In March 2025, Business Insider reported that Elez was part of a DOGE detachment assigned to the Department of Labor. [34]
Elon Musk said Friday that he will bring back a DOGE staff member who resigned after it was found that he had previously made racist remarks online.