Former DOGE staffer Edward “Big Balls” Coristine has been identified as the “young man” who Donald Trump claimed was “beaten mercilessly” after an alleged carjacking assault in Washington, D.C. The 19-year-old, who rose to prominence after tearing up the federal government on behalf of his billionaire boss, was assaulted around 3 a.m. Sunday, according to a police report obtained by Politico and Wired.
The incident occurred after at least two teenagers approached Coristine, who told police they made comments about stealing his vehicle, according to the report. Coristine ushered a female—a “significant other”—into the car, turned to face the teens and was subsequently attacked. A black iPhone 16 was also reportedly stolen.
Officers patrolling the area “observed a group of approximately 10 juveniles surrounding the complainants’ vehicle” before the assault.
Metropolitan Police arrested a 15-year-old male and 15-year-old female, both of Hyattsville, Maryland, and charged them with unarmed carjacking, according to a statement released Tuesday. On Tuesday, President Trump posted a bloodied photo of Coristine–who now works for the Social Security Administration–on his Truth Social account, referencing how he was “beaten mercilessly by local thugs.” He did not name Coristine, but labelled him an “incredible young man.” The president also threatened to take “federal control of the city and run this city how it should be run” and said juvenile offenders should be charged as adults.
Trump declared: “Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control. Local ‘youths’ and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released.”
He added, “They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now! The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these “minors” as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14.” Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Trump provided more detail on the identity of the “young man” referenced by the president. “Somebody from DOGE was very badly hurt… a young man who was beat up by a bunch of thugs in D.C,” he said. Vice President JD Vance also posted Trump’s message on his X account.
“Big Balls” was identified soon after, with Politico reporting that it was another DOGE employee, Marko Elez, who snapped the picture of a bloodied Coristine after the attack. Elez referred to Coristine by his ballsy LinkedIn nickname when posting about the incident on X. “My friend Big Balls… is a hero,” Elez wrote. Coristine’s former DOGE boss, Elon Musk, however, posted a slightly different account of the crime on X, claiming a victim was “severely beaten to the point of concussion” after coming to the rescue of a woman who was in her car when “a gang of about a dozen young men tried to assault” her. The billionaire, whose explosive falling-out with the president in recent months has been well documented, even reposted the president’s original post. “It is time to federalize DC,” Musk added.
Coristine has not posted on his X account since last month. The Daily Beast has contacted the Social Security Administration, the White House, and Coristine for comment. The Metropolitan Police Department also did not immediately respond. Quizzed by Wired on the bloodied photo of Coristine, Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Tom Lynch said that while he had not seen the photo, it “was posted by the president of the United States,” and said that “there’s no reason not to believe” it was legitimate. Coristine quit DOGE in June, having been on-boarded as a special government employee. He wound up taking on roles within the Department of Homeland Security and had worked on Trump’s “gold card” visa project, which aimed to sell U.S. citizenships for $5 million apiece.
Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who is now U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, posted on X on Tuesday that she had met with the Trump who discussed crime in Washington, saying they plan to “Get guns off the street, drugs off the street, take care of those individuals who are carjacking other people and make this city safe and clean again.”
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