CNN received some amusing reactions this week after airing a pair of segments on Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old “tech whiz” who has reportedly joined Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team.
Coristine, according to a Wired article published Thursday, goes by the name “Big Balls” online. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper alluded to the nickname in a Thursday segment, after which “Big Balls” began briefly trending on X, formerly Twitter.
“We begin tonight with Elon Musk and ‘Big Balls,’” Cooper said, noting that the teen is among those who are “helping the world’s richest man do whatever it is he’s doing, dismantling parts of the federal government.”
A second segment hosted by CNN’s Erin Burnett also made waves on social media after the words “Big Balls” appeared onscreen.
“I didn’t have Big Balls on the CNN chyron on my 2025 bingo card. But it was absolutely epic,” one person wrote.
Added another: “CNN just unintentionally made the funniest news segment of all time.”
Later on Thursday evening, Musk himself reacted by sharing a screenshot of Burnett’s segment on X.
“Best chyron ever,” he wrote.
Coristine, who reportedly hails from New Canaan, Connecticut, and is a first-year student at Northeastern University, did not respond to interview requests for the Wired article. He is believed to be the youngest member of Musk’s DOGE team, and previously interned for Neuralink, the tech billionaire’s brain-computer interface company.
According to the article, Coristine “has access to sensitive U.S. government systems,” though his professional and online history have called his ability to “pass the background check typically required to obtain security clearances” into question.
A separate Wired article describes Coristine as one of a six-man “coterie of engineers” who are “playing a key role as [Musk] seizes control of federal infrastructure.”
“What we’re seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, told the outlet “We really have very little eyes on what’s going on.”