President Donald Trump called teenage ex-DOGE staffer Edward Coristine a “beautiful, handsome guy” and said he was going to personally check in on him after a brutal carjacking.
The 19-year-old, who goes by the nickname “Big Balls,” was left bloodied after an alleged carjacking in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. The president posted a gruesome photo from the crime scene on his Truth Social account on Tuesday, before threatening a federal takeover of D.C. to lower the crime rate.
Coristine was approached by at least two teenagers at around 3 a.m., according to a police report. Metropolitan Police arrested a 15-year-old male and 15-year-old female, both of Hyattsville, Maryland, and charged them with unarmed carjacking.
Trump posted on his Truth Social account on Tuesday, referencing how the teen was “beaten mercilessly by local thugs.” He did not name Coristine, but called him an “incredible young man.”
On Wednesday, Trump revisited the topic, again appearing to reference the staffer known as “Big Balls”, who now works for the Social Security Administration after leaving DOGE.
“We have a capital that’s very unsafe,” Trump said in a press conference at the White House. “You know, we just almost lost a young man, beautiful, handsome guy that got the hell knocked out of him the night before last and, uh, I’m going to call him now. We wanted to give him a little recovery time.”
Trump continued, “We just put a call into him. They’re calling back in a little while, but he he went through a bad situation to put it mildly, and there’s too much of it. We’re going to we’re going to do something about it.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for an update on Coristine’s recovery.
The teen made headlines earlier this year when he was hired by Elon Musk to overhaul the federal government as part of DOGE, his ballsy nickname coming from his LinkedIn profile.
He left in June, after working on projects including Trump’s “gold card” visa, which was created to sell U.S. citizenships for $5 million apiece.
DOGE worker Marko Elez paid tribute to “my friend Big Balls” calling him a “hero” on Tuesday. Elez wrote that he took the photo Trump posted.
As of Wednesday, Elez has pinned the post, which is now the only post on his entire X account.
Speaking at the press conference, Trump continued his threat to take federal control over Washington, criticizing everything from graffiti and roads to the crime rate.
“We’re going to beautify the city,” Trump said. “We’re going to make it beautiful. What a shame the rate of crime, the rate of muggings, killings and everything else...
He added, “This has to be the best-run place in the country, not the worst-run place in the country and it has so much potential and we’re going to take care of it. You’re going to be you’re going to be safe. You’re going to be safe walking down streets. You’re not going to get mugged.”
