As the poor Sean Spicer found out too late, a Trump spokesperson is supposed to be willing to say literally anything – up to and including creating people who didn’t exist in order to assert the largest inauguration crowd ever, and either do so completely unapologetically, and-or be an aberrantly attractive young woman. Steven Cheung, current White House Communications Director (Toby Ziegler, in The West Wing nomenclature), fits the Trump mold perfectly, as he truly doesn’t care what the facts may be. If Cheung says it with enough vile language and enough hatred, nothing more need matter to him or his boss. His style will have earned him a lot of enemies, more so than the hapless but otherwise likable Sean Spicer, and that will ruin a lot of traditional “lee-way” given regarding private matters. Now, Michael Wolff is out telling people that Cheung has serious health problems in that he “keeps collapsing.”
This writer will never mock someone’s body or health, but it’s quite obvious that Cheung has weight difficulties, and those become relevant only in noting that it must drive Trump crazy. Trump believes his life is a good movie, and thus each character must look the part – unless he brings something else to the table. The Daily Beast assures us that Cheung certainly does.
White House communications director Steven Cheung has built a reputation for his profanity-laced, scorched-earth style—but author Michael Wolff, one of Cheung’s favorite punching bags, thinks his combative persona is just theater.
“There’s a sort of tragic feel about (Cheung) because he’s so heavy,” Wolff continued, arguing that he has to be “hidden away” and can’t become White House press secretary because the candidate “has to be a young woman.”
And not just any young woman, either. But we digress. We all know that the “scorched earth style” appeals to Trump because it reminds Trump of his favorite person – himself. Trump has two “types,” guys that support him and are just like him, and women who support him and are uniquely attractive enough to be granted a role in Trump’s world. But Wolff then goes on to note something that others have not:
Wolff, who has penned a series of blistering books on President Trump, claimed that during Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, Cheung was “always collapsing somewhere.” He cited a specific event at Union Station where he said he witnessed Cheung “having to be carried out.”
To be sure, this is the first we’ve heard of this. No one else has reported such, and we certainly don’t have personal knowledge of any such attacks or collapses – so the allegation should be viewed as merely that – an allegation. But again, Cheung controls access to the White House (Something that Wolff isn’t likely to get anyway), and most reporters would be hesitant to write about someone’s personal physical difficulties so long as the job is getting done. It isn’t a reach to say that most reporters would likely not report on such matters anyway, especially where one is going to face retribution if that reporter does go forward with such information.
But it is such a weird accusation that it seems hard to simply “make up” – knowing it would be easily refuted by reporters even closer to Cheung. Additionally, the “somewhere” implies that this happens often enough that Wolff doesn’t feel the need to further specify locations, noting only one. But no one else has spoken to the matter – yet, and likely won’t do so unless there is a change for the worse.
It is far better to watch for any reaction. If other reporters come out saying, “I haven’t seen or heard of any of this… ” then one can toss the allegation aside. If it is all met with stone silence, then the matter has more staying power. If something easy to refute isn’t refuted by others…
Is it an issue? Not really. There is a deputy ready to step up at any point (Sam Seaborn, early years). The only real point is – again, this is something that Trump himself would find scandalous and intolerable were it to occur to anyone but him and his administration.
One also wonders why someone would stay on if that person were having physical issues. But now we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Watch this spot.
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God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and also on X at @JasonMiciak, and please follow me now on Bluesky.
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sorry but I mistakenly posted a comment for this story under the previous story and I’m too tired/ lazy to re-do it here
He always reminds me of Oddjob from Goldfinger.