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.[18][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.[19]
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."[20]
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.[26] Shortly after Gorsuch's confirmation,Cheung assumed a different position at the White House.[27]
On August 16,2017,Cheung was appointed as Special Assistant to the President and Director of Strategic Response.[28] He then worked on the passage of Trump's tax reform bill,the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[29] The bill successfully passed Congress and Trump signed it into law on December 22,2017.[30]
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".[31]
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.[26] It was later revealed that Cheung's annual White House salary was $131,000.[32] 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.[33]
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.[40]
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.[41]
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.[45][46]
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 hasTrump Derangement Syndrome". The Trump campaign posted aTikTokvideo of the visit the next day, during which Trump is heard criticizing the Biden-Harris administration for theU.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.[47][48][49][50][51]
↑ Fowler, Stephen; Bowman, Tom; Lawrence, Quil (September 5, 2024). "Trump deputy campaign manager identified in Arlington National Cemetery dustup". NPR. Retrieved September 21, 2024. The two staffers, according to a source with knowledge of the incident, are deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Trump's advance team.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
