Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old high school graduate who goes by “Big Balls,” left the job and the Trump administration this week. A social media account under his name confirmed that he left.
“I’m officially out of that office. Can’t say too much yet, Appreciate everyone who’s reached out. Feels good to finally breathe again… Time to shift priorities and run a meatballs coin scam,” Coristine posted. “But I’ll make a post explaining what happened soon.”
In February he claimed he was starting a job at the State Department. Later that month, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, listed Coristine in a directory as a senior adviser.
Coristine drew eyes on him not only for his young age and lack of experience, but also having previously been fired from his internship at a cybersecurity firm for leaking company secrets, according to Bloomberg News. He had also briefly interned at Neuralink, a Musk-owned company.
As late as last month, Coristine was still an active member of DOGE. He attended a meeting on May 5 with the Commerce Department regarding Trump’s Golden Visa and a meeting on May 15 regarding the potential implementation of the DOGE agenda at the military.
According to WIRED, which first reported his departure, he was one of the most trusted members of the DOGE team. He was deployed across multiple federal agencies and had multiple federal laptops to his name.
Coristine was additionally one of a handful of DOGE-affiliated staffers in President Donald Trump’s White House who were occasionally seen at General Services Administration headquarters in Washington, D.C. His workspace was on the sixth floor of the office.
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In addition to working in the GSA, Coristine worked in the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, and was most recently working within the Social Security Administration, and had an email address affiliated with the agency.
As for the name: Coristine confirmed the nickname on Fox News when host Jesse Watters asked “Who is Big Balls?” during an interview with the DOGE team, and Musk said “that should be obvious” as Coristine raised his hand.
