Republican Senator Mike Lee has posted a disturbing AI-generated clip of Donald Trump placing the Medal of Freedom around the neck of Edward “Big Balls” Coristine after the teen was the victim of a carjacking.
The post came as the president finally addressed the 19-year-old ex-DOGE staffer by name in a Truth Social message on Thursday.
Trump wrote, “Edward: The Crime situation in Washington, just like our Southern Border where ZERO Illegals entered in the last three months, will be a safe place very soon. Thank you for your bravery and heart. Stay tuned!”
Senator Lee has already posted the fake clip on his personal account this week, but he doubled down on Thursday with a caption about making “DC safe again,” including “Trump gives the Medal of Freedom to Big Balls.”
The AI clip appears to show a fake Trump leaning into the computer-generated image of the teenager, before placing his hands on his shoulders.
Senator Lee credited X user ALX with making the AI clip–the user’s bio states they are an “American supremacist”.
ALX had posted the clip–made using Elon Musk’s Grok technology–on Wednesday with the caption “Give Big Balls The Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
ALX’s account has featured a string of pro-“Balls” content, from complaining about a lack of mainstream media coverage over the assault to posting an apparent tribute in Washington that read, “Heal fast Big Balls, thanks Trump! Love DOGE.”
As well as trying to hard launch the hashtag #BigBallsForDCMayor, Lee also backed Trump’s latest passion project of a potential federal government takeover power of Washington D.C, adding it would lead to a restoration of “law and order”.
Crime in D.C. has become a Trump talking point this week after the president posted a graphic photo of the teenager, who uses the nickname “Big Balls,” from Sunday’s crime scene.
Coristine was left bloodied after an alleged carjacking in Washington on Sunday. He 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.
On Wednesday, Trump referenced the teen, who now works for the Social Security Administration, in a press conference at the White House, without actually mentioning him by name.
“We have a capital that’s very unsafe,” Trump said. “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 for an update on the president’s interactions with Coristine.
On Thursday, Fox News’ Gutfield co-host and ex-wrestler Tyrus called for more respect on Coristine’s name.
“Instead of calling him ‘Big Balls,’ we should call him by his name; we should revere him,” Tyrus said.
He added, “The problem is we’ve worked so hard to water men down... and the ones who suffer the most are women. We need to praise this man, and we need to praise more young men for getting involved because men, it’s time to get back in the game.”
Corisitine entered the MAGAsphere earlier this year when Elon Musk hired him to overhaul the federal government as part of DOGE, with his ballsy nickname being spotted on his LinkedIn profile.
He quit in June, after working on projects including Trump’s “gold card” visa, which was designed to sell U.S. citizenships for $5 million apiece.
