The press aide has been behind the Trump campaign’s most inflammatory statements.
Topline
President-elect Donald Trump named Steven Cheung to be the White House communications director in his second term, elevating the longtime press aide after Cheung has reliably adopted the president-elect’s combative tone in public statements and denounced Trump’s political rivals.Key Facts
Trump announced Cheung’s appointment Friday, with the president-elect describing Cheung and fellow nominee Sergio Gor—tapped to lead the Presidential Personnel Office—in a statement as “trusted Advisors since my first Presidential Campaign in 2016” who “have continued to champion America First principles.”
Cheung first joined Trump during his 2016 campaign and then became director of rapid response during Trump’s first presidency, leaving the White House in 2018 and creating a private firm that worked with Trump on his 2020 campaign.
Cheung served as director of communications in Trump’s latest presidential campaign, issuing many statements on behalf of the campaign and attacking Trump’s enemies in the same fiery tone the president-elect is known for, decrying Trump’s criminal cases as “witch hunts” and once saying in a statement to Forbes of President Joe Biden, “He can barely put two coherent sentences together and slowly shuffles around like he has a full diaper in his pants, often falling on his ass in front of the world.
