(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) If there’s one thing the legacy media can’t resist, it’s “Big Balls.”
Meet Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old engineer who Elon Musk hired for the Department of Government Efficiency, whose reported use of the online moniker “Big Balls” has left the legacy media clutching their pearls.
Anchors on CNN and MSNBC repeatedly aired this nickname in what appeared to be a coordinated effort to tarnish DOGE’s reputation as it continues to expose corruption within the federal government.
Musk dismissed the media’s grievances and doubled down on Coristine’s hiring, writing on X Tuesday, “Big Balls is awesome.” He then changed his page’s handle to “Harry Bolz,” seemingly a humorous nod to “hairy balls.”
Personally, I voted for Big Balls https://t.co/gtRPzGHLDr
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2025
Fueling Musk’s mocking remarks was reporting like that of MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, who described Coristine’s hiring as “a national security concern.”
Dana Bash, the host of CNN’s Inside Politics, echoed Maddow’s sentiments, dedicating an entire segment to Musk on Tuesday and introducing him as “Harry Bolz.”
🚨 TROLL OF THE CENTURY
Elon Musk enjoyed the MSM saying Big Balls so much he decided to see if he could get them to say Hairy Balls
So @elonmusk changed his profile name to Harry Bōlz and CNN delivered!! pic.twitter.com/5TKnn4HGCt
— Alec Lace (@AlecLace) February 11, 2025
“Now, the disruptor in chief Elon Musk—who apparently has adopted the alias, at least he changed his social media handle to ‘Harry Bolz’—tweeted this morning, ‘Democracy in America is being destroyed by judicial coup. An activist judge is not a real judge,’” Bash said.
On MSNBC’s ReidOut, Joy Reid took a more dramatic approach: “Take a deep breath and ponder Big Balls.”
“Take a deep breath and ponder Big Balls” – MSNBC’s Joy Reid
This is real 🤣 pic.twitter.com/cwq1KfMhBW
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 11, 2025
CNN’s OutFront host Erin Burnett chimed in, “That’s that 19-year-old Musk, who goes by the online nickname ‘Big Balls,’ now has a role inside the State Department.”
Both Anderson Cooper, host of CNN’s AC360, and Stephanie Ruhle, host of The 11th Hour, echoed the same rhetoric.
Headline USA found no evidence that Coristine ever used the nickname on social media.
