‘Big Balls’ beating prompts Trump to float National Guard to fight DC crime

President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday during a press briefing that he would consider bringing in the National Guard to fight crime in Washington, D.C., following an attack on a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) member.

Known online as “Big Balls,” Edward Coristine was brutally beaten in Washington, D.C., early Sunday morning after intervening in an unarmed carjacking, according to a police report obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. While speaking to reporters during an Oval Office press briefing, Trump was asked if the “option” of taking over the city’s police and federalizing it is still “on the table.”

“We’re considering it, yeah, because the crime is ridiculous. I could show you a chart comparing D.C. to other locations, and you’re not going to want to see what it looks like,” Trump said. “It was just up on television, actually, that we’re showing it. Now, we want to have a great, safe capital, and we’re going to have it. That includes cleanliness, and it includes other things.”

Trump’s calls to federalize D.C. came shortly after Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, an intern for Republican Kansas Rep. Ron Estes, was fatally shot in the city on June 30. Following the incident, reports on July 8 indicated that the White House was considering a federal takeover of the U.S. capital, with the president saying he wants the city to “run flawlessly.”

“We have a capital that’s very unsafe. We just almost lost a young man, a beautiful, handsome guy that got the hell knocked out of him the night before last. I’m going to call him now. We wanted to give him a little recovery time,” Trump added. “We just put a call in to him. They’re calling back in a little while, but he went through a bad situation, to put it mildly, and there’s too much of it. We’re going to do something about it, whether you call it federalized or what.”

“That also includes the graffiti that you see, the papers all over the place, the roads that are in bad shape, the medians that are falling down, the median in between roads that’s falling down. We’re going to beautify the city,” Trump said. “We’re going to make it beautiful. And what a shame, the rate of crime, the rate of muggings, killings, and everything else … That includes bringing in the National Guard, maybe very quickly, too.”

On Tuesday evening, Trump took to Truth Social, posting he’s upset with D.C.’s crime rate, adding that a recent incident had occurred involving a victim “beaten mercilessly” by “local thugs.”

While the president did not name Coristine as the victim, a picture was posted of a young man sitting on the floor covered in blood. In response to Trump’s post, former DOGE head Elon Musk said a DOGE staff member was a victim of the attack. He called for federalizing Washington, D.C.

According to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department police report, Coristine said he saw the suspect approach, with MPD’s press release saying the suspects demanded a second victim’s vehicle.

Concerned for the second victim’s safety, the DOGE member then pushed her into her vehicle, turning to confront the suspects. With Coristine being assaulted by the suspects, an MPD cruiser pulled into the block, causing approximately 10 suspects to flee the scene on foot, according to the police report.

Officials said that a 15-year-old juvenile male and a 15-year-old juvenile female from Hyattsville, Md., were both arrested and charged with unarmed carjacking.

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