One of the young tech workers employed by Elon Musk‘s DOGE team is being welcomed back to the job after reporting exposed controversial social media posts attributed to him and created a sort of a public forum about his qualifications.
The young DOGE worker was accused of authoring racially insensitive posts through a deleted X account — and current social media opinion seemed split on whether these were, as MAGA defenders claimed, mistakes made by a youthful man in a formative stage (i.e., kids do dumb things) or whether the posts demonstrated an ingrained intolerance that should be — while within his free speech rights — disqualifying for a DOGE employee.
When Musk hired back the worker after running a poll in which enough X opinionators expressed sympathy and prescribed clemency for the worker, Musk wrote “to err is human, to forgive divine.”
(NOTE: We are not publishing the worker’s name, now easily searchable, because of sensitivity to accusations that he was inappropriately “doxxed” by previous reporting.)
The issue of the DOGE worker’s posts was, of course, hotly debated online, where MAGA adherents claimed the Left was witch-hunting to derail Musk’s power, and where people on the Left wondered if there is any conduct or behavior left that might be considered “disqualifying” under the Trump administration.
The defense of the worker and Musk’s decision to rehire him crescendoed when Vice President JD Vance weighed in, siding with Musk’s decision and writing: “I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life. We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”
On X, Vance’s take was popular:
JD Vance is right, we shouldn’t let one mistake ruin someone’s life. Free speech matters.
We need to stop cancel culture and let people learn from their errors. It’s time to bring him back and move forward.
Elon Musk is doing the right thing by considering a second chance for…
— Stop Socialist Tyranny (@endlibtyranny) February 7, 2025
But not everyone agreed, including those who wondered what it would take to make someone a “bad dude” — in Vance parlance — if the posts in question didn’t do that.
You don’t think him saying “Normalize Indian hate” makes him a bad dude? Have you told these folks? pic.twitter.com/KypmpEiR7I
— Secrets and Laws (@secretsandlaws) February 7, 2025
Vance’s support for Musk’s decision was seen as especially notable not just because of his elected office, but because he is married to a woman of Indian descent and has children who are of Indian descent. The worker’s controversial comments reportedly included “Normalize Indian hate” and “I was racist before it was cool.”
Vance is very active on social media, often responding to and sharing prominent posts, just as he commented on Musk’s post. But the Vice President has so far not responded to a straightforward question in the comments on his post that appears to come from a nonpartisan account, opting not to repeat the content of the posts at issue.
The question is: “What were his posts about?”
What were his posts about
— Time Capsule Tales (@timecaptales) February 7, 2025
The content of the controversial tweets as they were reported appear, in part, in the tweet below.
“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.” — July
“You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity… Normalize Indian hate.” — September
“99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they’re going back don’t worry guys” — December…
— Isaac Saul (@Ike_Saul) February 7, 2025
Democrats like Victor Shi point out that Vance seems to have previously asserted that social media content can be grounds for disqualification when someone talks “about racial issues in a way that will inflame the very worst things in our country.” Below Vance, a Senator at the time, uses those words during the contentious confirmation hearing for Gigi Sohn as FCC chair.
This isn’t getting enough attention. JD Vance recently said that “stupid social media activity shouldn’t ruin” someone’s life.
Yet, here’s JD a couples years ago saying Gigi Sohn shouldn’t be nominated to the FCC because of her social media posts.
Hypocrisy is dead. pic.twitter.com/33Z2UpaZk0
— Victor Shi (@Victorshi2020) February 9, 2025
But Vance’s followers are generally as forgiving as Musk on the issue, and largely support what they see as the Vice President’s defense of the worker.
He is young, most men his age are the same. If he is autistic, and I’m sure he is, his emotional maturity is delayed on top of that. Just guide him and make sure he does his job so that he isn’t getting into trouble with that data and talk to him.
If we accept the brilliant…
— Emma Florez
(@erinflorez01) February 8, 2025