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Huyen "Steven" Cheung (born June 23, 1982) is an American political advisor serving as President-elect Donald Trump's campaign spokesman in the 2024 United States presidential election.[1][2] He previously worked in Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He also worked in communications for the sports organization Ultimate Fighting Championship based in Las Vegas, Nevada.[3][4]
Steven Cheung | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| White House Communications Director | |
Designate | |
| Assuming office January 20, 2025 | |
| President | Donald Trump (elect) |
| Succeeding | Ben LaBolt |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Huyen Cheung June 23, 1982 Sacramento, California, U.S |
| Political party | Republican |
| Education | California State University, Sacramento (BA) |
In November 2024, he was named White House communications director for the incoming Donald Trump administration.[5]
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Cheung was born in Sacramento, California, to Chinese parents who had immigrated to the U.S. and was raised in Sacramento.[6][7] He was a high school football player.[8] He attended California State University, Sacramento, majoring in computer science and political science.[6]
Political campaigns and UFC
As a college student in 2003, Cheung became an intern in then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's communications and speechwriting office in California.[9][10] He moved to Washington, D.C. in 2008 to work on John McCain's presidential campaign.[11][12] Cheung has served on the campaigns of Steve Poizner for California governor, Sharron Angle for U.S. Senate, and Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst for U.S. Senate.[13] In 2013, Cheung transitioned into a career with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he worked as "a director of communications for public affairs at the UFC".[14] He was involved in the UFC practice of banning reporters critical of the organization from live events.[15]
Trump 2016 campaign and transition
Before then-candidate Donald Trump was nominated as the Republican presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention in 2016, Cheung left his job at the UFC and joined the Trump campaign's communications and press team as Director of Rapid Response.[16][3] His duties included "keeping the campaign up to date on breaking news and pushing back on false or unbalanced reporting" according to a press release.[17]
Cheung was involved[how?] in a statement disavowing support from the Ku Klux Klan and a white supremacist newspaper, who endorsed Trump's campaign. He said, "Mr. Trump and the campaign denounces hate in any form. This publication is repulsive and their views do not represent the tens of millions of Americans who are uniting behind our campaign."[18]
After Trump's victory over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Cheung was named as an advisor to the presidential transition team.[19][20][21] According to media reports, he was at one point considered for the role of White House Press Secretary.[22] That job ultimately went to Sean Spicer.[23]
Trump White House
Cheung was named as Special Assistant to the President and Assistant Communications Director at the White House on January 19, 2017, one day prior to Trump's inauguration.[2] He was part of a team tasked with helping nominate and confirm Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court. Gorsuch was eventually confirmed to the Supreme Court by the United States Senate by a 54–45 vote.[24] Shortly after Gorsuch's confirmation, Cheung assumed a different position at the White House.[25]
On August 16, 2017, Cheung was appointed as Special Assistant to the President and Director of Strategic Response.[26] He then worked on the passage of Trump's tax reform bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[27] The bill successfully passed Congress and Trump signed it into law on December 22, 2017.[28]
According to the book Sinking in the Swamp: How Trump's Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington, Cheung, along with three others, were referred to as "the killers" in the White House by Jared Kushner and Stephen Bannon. They were considered by Bannon to be "innovative and action oriented".[29]
On June 11, 2018, Politico reported Cheung left the White House,[7] amid a contentious period with Chief of Staff John F. Kelly making changes to Trump's White House communications staff. Amid leaks and infighting, Kelly overhauled the communications team, which led to additional departures.[24] It was later revealed that Cheung's annual White House salary was $131,000.[30] Cheung later appeared in a contentious interview with CNN on June 28, 2018, where critics accused him of politicizing the confirmation process of the United States Supreme Court.[31]
Trump 2020 campaign
Politico reported that President Trump's 2020 re-election campaign retained the services of the firm Solgence, which is owned and operated by Cheung.[32] As part of the 2020 campaign, Cheung worked on putting together the Republican National Convention in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.[33]
After the 2020 US presidential election, in which Trump was defeated by Joe Biden, Cheung was involved in the Trump campaign's efforts to overturn the election. Despite Trump's claims, according to experts, there has been no evidence of election fraud.[34][35][36][37]
Post-Trump presidency
Cheung was named the spokesman of the Trump 2024 presidential campaign. After Trump was criticized in October 2023 for his statement that undocumented immigrants were "poisoning the blood of our country," echoing language of white supremacists and Adolf Hitler, Cheung responded:
That's a normal phrase that is used in everyday life – in books, television, movies, and in news articles. For anyone to think that is racist or xenophobic is living in an alternate reality consumed with non-sensical [sic] outrage.[38]
After Trump was criticized in November 2023 for referring to his political opponents as "vermin", Cheung said:
Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.[39]
Cheung was a senior advisor on the 2022 U.S. Senate campaign of former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, who resigned amid allegations of sexual assault and campaign finance impropriety.[40][41]
Axios reported that Cheung joined as senior advisor to reality star Caitlyn Jenner's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in California during the 2021 recall election.[10]
Cheung also served as an advisor and spokesperson for former congressman Jim Renacci's 2022 campaign for Ohio governor.[42]
Media outlets reported in 2022 that Cheung began advising cryptocurrency entrepreneur and philanthropist Brock Pierce, a former child star linked to Jeffrey Epstein and the DEN collapse & financial & sex scandal.[43][44]
Arlington National Cemetery incident
On August 27, 2024, an incident occurred at Arlington National Cemetery in which two Trump staffers, Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, shoved a cemetery employee who was trying to stop the Trump team from photographing and video recording a campaign promotion in a heavily restricted area of the cemetery known as Section 60, a burial site that is primarily reserved for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A federal law prohibits the use of U.S. military facilities, cemeteries in particular, for political campaigns.
Cheung claimed the woman was "suffering from a mental health episode," which military officials said was false. He alleged the cemetery employee "initiated physical contact that was unwarranted and unnecessary" and said the campaign would release video to support its account, which it never did. The cemetery employee filed an incident report with military officials, but declined to press charges, fearing retribution from Trump supporters. Cheung characterized that concern as "ridiculous and sounds like someone who has Trump Derangement Syndrome". The Trump campaign posted a TikTok video of the visit the next day, during which Trump is heard criticizing the Biden-Harris administration for the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.[45][46][47][48][49]
MAGA Inc.
As of 2023, Cheung was the communications director of Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC.[50][51][52][53][54][55][56]
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