Elon Musk protégé and former Department of Government Efficiency staffer Edward Coristine—better known by his nickname “Big Balls”—was assaulted during an attempted carjacking early Sunday morning.
The incident, which occurred in a quiet residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., has reignited outrage from President Donald Trump and renewed his longstanding threat to take federal control of the capital.
“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore,” Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday.
He included a photo of what appeared to be Coristine, shirtless and smeared in blood.
“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,” he added.
Trump didn’t name Coristine directly, but Musk confirmed the link almost immediately, apparently setting aside his recent public feud with the president.
“It is time to federalize D.C.,” Musk wrote on X, calling Coristine a “DOGE team member.”
The Metropolitan Police Department announced on Tuesday that a 15-year-old girl and boy from Maryland had been arrested and charged with unarmed carjacking. Authorities are still searching for others involved. Two people familiar with the case told The Washington Post that the teens are being held in the city’s youth detention center.
The attack comes after several high-profile crimes that have drawn national attention to D.C.’s justice system. In June, 21-year-old congressional intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym was killed in crossfire near the convention center. He was working for GOP Rep. Ron Estes of Kansas. No one has been charged in his killing.
While city data shows that violent crime is trending downward and homicide rates remain close to last year’s levels, these headline-making incidents have become central to Trump’s argument that D.C. is a failed liberal experiment.
“We could run D.C.,” Trump told reporters last month. “The crime would be down to a minimal, it’d be much less.”
On Tuesday, he intensified that message.
“Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago,” Trump wrote about the Coristine incident. “Then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime. If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
His post came hours after U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro visited the White House to discuss the city’s crime rate, though it’s unclear whether she briefed Trump on the Coristine case specifically. A spokesperson for Pirro told The Post that the case is not being handled by her office.
Under D.C. law, the city’s attorney general prosecutes most juvenile cases. The U.S. attorney can only charge 16- and 17-year-olds as adults for certain violent felonies, like armed robbery or murder. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb declined to comment on the details but called the attack “disturbing.”
“No one who lives in, works in, or visits D.C. should experience this; it is horrific and disturbing,” Schwalb said. “When MPD brings us cases with sufficient evidence of juveniles who have broken the law and hurt people, we will prosecute them and ensure they face consequences for their actions.”
Coristine, once a top DOGE operative, now works at the Social Security Administration. Earlier this year, he also took on advisory roles at the State Department and Homeland Security Department—sparking concern about Musk’s influence and Coristine’s access to sensitive information.
While at DOGE, Coristine helped oversee the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Trump has long criticized D.C. as lawless and broken—once calling it a “dirty, crime-ridden death trap”—and floated the idea of a federal takeover. During the 2020 uprisings, his administration considered taking control of the Metropolitan Police Department. That effort failed, though the federal government deployed National Guard troops and military helicopters across the city.
D.C. has its own mayor and city council, but Congress ultimately controls its laws and budget. The president also has jurisdiction over much of the city’s public safety infrastructure. Since gaining limited home rule in 1973, D.C. has operated under constant federal oversight, and Trump has been leveraging that power in his second term, creating a federal D.C. crime task force.
Mayor Muriel Bowser has tried to balance political pressures, echoing some of Trump’s rhetoric while defending D.C.’s overall progress. She ordered the removal of Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House earlier this year and frequently cites declining crime numbers. In January, federal officials announced that violent crime reached a 30-year low.
But the attack on Coristine may finally provide Trump the opportunity he’s been waiting for—allowing him to follow through on his long-promised plan to bring D.C. fully under federal control.