WASHINGTON (AP) — Two 15-year-olds have been arrested in Washington in connection with the attempted carjacking and beating of one of the most prominent members of the Department of Government Efficiency, renewing calls from President Donald Trump for the federal government to seize control of the nation’s capital.
The victim, Edward Coristine, nicknamed “Big Balls,” was among the most visible figures of Trump’s DOGE, which was tasked with slashing federal bureaucracy.
Coristine was assaulted around 3 a.m. Sunday in the city’s Logan Circle neighborhood by a group of teenagers attempting to carjack him and a woman whom police identified as his significant other, according to authorities.
The Metropolitan Police Department said the group approached the couple’s car and made a comment about taking it. Coristine pushed the woman into the vehicle for safety and turned to confront the group. At least several of the teens then attacked him, police said, until officers patrolling nearby intervened. As officers moved toward the group, the teens fled on foot.
Two 15-year-olds from Maryland were arrested on charges of unarmed carjacking, police said.
The attack gave new fuel to long-standing Republican efforts to challenge Washington’s autonomy, with Trump threatening to bypass local authority and impose direct federal control over the city.
In a social media post and remarks at the White House on Tuesday, the president described crime in Washington as “out of control.”
“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 said in a post on Truth Social.
The District of Columbia has long served as a symbolic battleground in debates over crime and governance, and its lack of statehood has made it uniquely vulnerable to federal intervention. Republican leaders have frequently seized on episodes of violence to portray the city as a case study of violence in cities run by Democratic mayors, even as city officials note that violent crime overall is down more than 25% from the same period last year.
Still, local officials have acknowledged in recent years that youth crime, particularly carjackings, remains a serious concern. Just last year, a 14-year-old was charged with killing a Lyft driver in a botched carjacking, and a significant portion of carjacking arrests in Washington involve juveniles.
The Metropolitan Police Department said its investigation into the attack on Coristine remains active and additional suspects are still being sought.
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Balsamo reported from New York.
