A day after a Treasury Department employee linked to Elon Musk’s DOGE cost-cutting initiative stepped down following a Wall Street Journal report exposing his racist social media activity, the Trump administration has pledged to reinstate him.

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“He will be brought back,” Musk announced on X. “To err is human, to forgive divine.”

Musk’s statement came after both Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump showed support for the return of 25-year-old software engineer Marko Elez.

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Vice President Vance publicly defended Elez, one of two government employees associated with Musk who had been granted access to sensitive taxpayer data.

"Here's my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez's posts, but I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life," Vance wrote.

During a press conference on Friday, Trump was asked about the demands for Elez’s reinstatement. He indicated that he supported Vance’s position.

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“Well, I don’t know about that particular thing, but if the vice president said that,” Trump stated, before turning to Vance, who was present at the event, and confirming his stance. “I’m with the vice president.”

Elez was one of only two individuals linked to DOGE who had been permitted by a federal court to access the Treasury Department system, which oversees the distribution of over $5 trillion annually. A US federal judge on Saturday (Feb 8) blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury Department records which contain sensitive personal data, including Social Security and bank account numbers for millions of Americans. 

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Earlier on Friday, Musk conducted a poll on X, asking users whether Elez should be reinstated. The results showed that 78% supported his return to the Department of Government Efficiency.

Elez resigned on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal revealed his past racist social media comments. According to the report, one of his posts from July read: "Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool."

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Other posts reportedly included statements such as "Normalize Indian hate" and "You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity."

Before his brief tenure in the federal government, Elez had worked at two of Musk’s private companies—SpaceX and X.

(With inputs from agencies)