OPINION:
In just a few weeks, Donald Trump has changed more in Washington than any other chief executive since Franklin D. Roosevelt. His rejection of cancel culture may have the most lasting impact.
That became apparent as Democrats, desperate to thwart the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, began delving into the backgrounds of the young federal waste investigators responsible for shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development.
On Friday, Wall Street Journal reporter Katherine Long went after 25-year-old software engineer Marko Elez over unwise tweets he purportedly made under a pseudonym before he joined DOGE. Ms. Long was an intern at USAID before becoming a USAID contractor. She did not disclose her connection to the embattled agency or how she obtained the deleted tweets, but she did declare victory when Mr. Elez chose to resign.
Having taken their first scalp, liberals were elated. It didn’t bother them that it has generally been considered in bad taste to go after junior staffers in this way. They’re not public figures, and they never signed up for the intense media spotlight.
Devotees of cancel culture are selective in their outrage over past indiscretions, raising commotion only when it suits their purposes. Blackface aficionado Justin Trudeau remains Canada’s prime minister. Virginia Democrats did nothing to push Gov. Ralph Northam was out of office, even after someone noticed his medical school yearbook featured a photograph of him either in blackface or wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood.
Then there was Robert Byrd, the former KKK grand cyclops who went on to become the Senate’s most senior Democrat until his death in 2010. Byrd put away his Klan hood at age 35, and Democrats forgave him. Their lenience now disappears for a much younger man who allegedly wrote, “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth” and “normalize Indian hate” under a pseudonym.
Nobody should condone those juvenile statements any more than one should endorse wearing a Klan hood, but there’s more to the story. Elon Musk polled his social media platform users to see whether they thought the wayward employee deserved a second chance. Of the 385,000 who responded, 78% said “yes.”
J.D. Vance was among those embracing forgiveness. “Racist trolls on the internet, while offensive, don’t threaten my kids. You know what does? A culture that denies grace to people who make mistakes,” the vice president wrote on X.
As a convert to the Catholic faith with a colorful upbringing, Mr. Vance recognizes the importance of charity, adding: “I cannot overstate how much I loathe this emotional blackmail pretending to be concern. My kids, God willing, will be risk-takers. They won’t think constantly about whether a flippant comment or a wrong viewpoint will follow them around for the rest of their lives.”
Mr. Trump was asked to weigh in on the controversy. “Well, I don’t know about that particular thing,” he responded, turning to Mr. Vance. “But if the vice president said so (Did you say that?) I’m with the V.P.”
As a leader, Mr. Trump knows the importance of having faith in his team members, especially when they’re on an important mission. It’s the fraudulent expenditures in the federal budget, not young people who suffer a lapse in judgment, that deserve cancellation.
In a July report, the Congressional Budget Office discovered $516 billion spent on government programs with expired authorizations. About half his involved programs whose legal authority lapsed more than a decade ago.
With his return, the prodigal DOGE staffer can earn redemption by continuing this good work and setting an example for others.
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