# Steven Cheung **Steven Cheung** (b. June 23, 1982, Sacramento, California) is White House communications director in the [[Second Trump Administration]]. [[Donald Trump]] named him to the post on November 15, 2024. He is one of Trump's longest-serving press operatives, dating to the 2016 campaign. His official spokesmanship is combative and insult-forward, and it treats press inquiries as adversarial engagements rather than requests for information. That posture is itself part of the administration's media strategy (see [[Media Capture]]). ## Career - **Before Trump.** He started as a communications intern for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger while at Sacramento State. He then worked on Republican campaigns, including John McCain's in 2008 and Sharron Angle's 2010 Nevada Senate race. From 2013 he was communications director for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, where he helped run the campaign to legalize mixed martial arts in New York. - **First Trump term.** He joined the 2016 campaign in July 2016 as director of rapid response, then served in the White House as assistant communications director and, from September 2017, director of strategic response. He left the White House in 2018. - **The interregnum.** He consulted for the 2020 campaign and Caitlyn Jenner's 2021 recall bid, and from September 2022 led communications for the super PAC MAGA Inc. - **2024 campaign.** As the campaign's communications director he wrote statements and some of Trump's Truth Social posts, calling Kamala Harris a "stone cold loser" and routinely using "Trump Derangement Syndrome" as a deflection. The UFC background is the usual explanation for the style. Trump reportedly calls him "my sumo wrestler." Reporters who cover him say that in private he has a workable relationship with the press, which suggests the public register is a tactic rather than temperament. ## Named defendant, press-ban litigation On **September 21, 2026**, Cheung was named as a defendant in the suit [[CNN]], MS NOW ([[MSNBC]]) and [[Politico]] filed in federal court in Washington over the [[White House Press Ban]]. His co-defendants are Trump, chief of staff [[Susie Wiles]] and Secret Service director [[Sean Curran]]. The complaint pleads the First and Fifth Amendments. Judge [[Timothy Kelly]] heard it on September 23 and, early on **September 24**, entered a **14-day temporary restraining order** directing the White House to restore the outlets' hard passes. Reporters were still turned away that morning. Being sued in his own name over press access is the logical endpoint of the posture described above: a communications operation that treats coverage as an adversary eventually becomes a party to the litigation. ## Known statements - **August 2026.** Responding to reporting on the [[Air Force One Decoy Operation]], he neither confirmed nor denied it: "As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats." ## See also - [[Donald Trump]] · [[Karoline Leavitt]] · [[Susie Wiles]] - [[White House Press Ban]] · [[Air Force One Decoy Operation]] - [[Media Capture]]