Encyclopedia · Biography
Steven Cheung
American political communications executive; White House director of communications and assistant to President Donald Trump since January 2025.
Personal details
- Full name
- Steven Cheung
- Birth
- Approximately 1982; California, United States (public reporting identifies age 42 in November 2024)
- Upbringing
- Sacramento, California; son of Chinese immigrant parents
- Education
- Attended California State University, Sacramento; no degree awarded, according to university registrar in 2024
- Family
- Names of spouse, children and parents not established by reliable public records reviewed
- Earlier work
- California Republican political campaigns; Ultimate Fighting Championship, communications staff (2013–2016)
- 2016 campaign
- Communications staff for Donald Trump
- First White House
- Special assistant to the president, director of special communications projects/strategic response (2017)
- 2024 campaign
- Trump campaign director of communications, November 2022–November 2024
- Transition
- Trump–Vance transition director of communications, November 2024–January 2025
- Current office
- Assistant to the president and White House director of communications, January 20, 2025–present
- 2026 public salary
- $195,200 in White House annual personnel report
Steven Cheung (born approximately 1982) is an American political communications professional serving as assistant to the president and White House director of communications in the second administration of Donald Trump. He worked on California Republican campaigns, served as a press and communications executive with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), joined Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, held a first-term White House communications role, and returned as the campaign's principal communications director for the 2024 presidential election. His October 2025 signed ethics disclosure records paid communications services for the 2024 campaign and transition totaling $267,503. His documented relationships concern media strategy and staffing; the White House communications director is separate from the White House press secretary, whose office experienced personnel turnover in 2026. [1] [2] [3]
Childhood, family and education
Cheung grew up in Sacramento, California, the son of immigrants from China. Public reporting in November 2024 described him as 42 years old, placing his birth around 1982; a publicly verified exact birth date was not located. Local Sacramento television affiliate KCRA reported that California State University, Sacramento confirmed he attended the university but did not earn a degree. [4]
Although his family background is discussed publicly, verifiable names for his parents, any spouse or children were not supplied by the original official records reviewed. This page does not invent those names or substitute unverified social-media claims. [4]
His California political and professional career preceded his association with Trump, and he did not enter public life through a congressional or other elected position. [1]
Early California political campaigns
Cheung's political communications work included involvement in the 2003 California gubernatorial recall campaign that elected Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the orbit of Republican political consultants. Later accounts identify roles with California Republican candidate Steve Poizner and California gubernatorial candidate Caitlyn Jenner, who ran in the 2021 recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom. He was not himself a candidate for these offices. [4] [5]
The work combined campaign rapid response, speech/message distribution, handling media inquiries and press strategies. Particular contracts and precise titles for every early campaign are less consistently documented than his 2024 official appointment and 2025 federal disclosure; the earlier associations remain historical work, not current White House pay sources. [5]
Ultimate Fighting Championship and Dana White
Cheung worked on communications and media response for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) from 2013 through 2016. The organization is led by Dana White, a longtime personal and political ally of Trump. This position connected Cheung professionally to a sports-media organization before his full-time involvement in Trump's national political campaigns. [6]
Trump and White had known one another since UFC events at Trump's Atlantic City casino in the early 2000s; White publicly supported Trump for president. Cheung's UFC employment is a verifiable communications job and does not itself imply that he held a personal equity stake in the privately held UFC or in White's companies. [6]
In November 2026 Trump publicly invited White to consider the vacant White House press secretary position, and Cheung welcomed the suggestion on social media. White appeared at a White House media event on November 9 but declined the role, with Trump describing the invitation as a joke. Cheung continued to be identified by the White House as director of communications. [7] [8]
2016 Trump campaign and first White House
Cheung joined Trump's 2016 presidential effort as a communications aide. After the election he served in the first White House as a special assistant to the president, with a title in official personnel records of director of special communications projects or a comparable strategic-response position. The publicly available 2017 staff payroll table establishes federal employment distinct from his 2016 political-campaign role. [2] [9]
The special projects and strategic-response functions included defending the administration's public positions, providing statements to news outlets and countering unfavorable narratives. Holding a communications role near the president is not equivalent to the statutory powers of an agency head or to command over the White House counsel's office. [2]
2020–2024 campaign communications, legal case messaging and transition
Cheung participated in campaign communications in the period between Trump's first and second presidential terms. In November 2022 he became director of communications for Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., according to his later signed federal disclosure. He remained in that role through November 2024. [3]
He became a regular public campaign spokesman during Trump's criminal and civil cases, Republican presidential primaries and 2024 election. In 2024 he disputed reporting concerning the former president's Manhattan criminal trial, immigration policy, former advisers' assessments of Trump and opposition candidates. The Washington Post and National Review documented his frequent use of strongly confrontational and sometimes insulting language; those are observable message tactics, not a judicial determination that a particular allegation he made was true. [10] [11]
During the Republican primaries Cheung issued statements concerning opponents including Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. He was a communications official advocating his candidate's position, not an attorney of record in Trump's court proceedings or a government prosecutor. [4] [11]
In the November 2024–January 2025 Trump–Vance transition, Cheung retained the communications-director role. The November 15, 2024 official transition announcement named him assistant to the president and director of communications for the incoming administration alongside a separate appointment of Sergio Gor as director of presidential personnel. This establishes adjacent appointments on a transition document, not proof Cheung managed White House personnel selection. [1]
2025 public ethics disclosure and 2026 salary
Cheung's original federal ethics form, signed October 16, 2025 and later published on the White House website, reports he was director of communications for Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. from November 2022 to November 2024 and for the Trump–Vance presidential transition from November 2024 to January 2025. [3]
The form lists $244,500 in Trump campaign consulting fees and $23,003 in transition consulting fees, for $267,503 total reported consulting payments. It does not list any other current business assets, future employment agreements or liabilities in the relevant sections. Disclosure of no spouse employment assets on the form is not evidence he was unmarried: certain items may be inapplicable or not reportable. These dollar amounts are pre-office consulting income and should not be reported as a continuing 2026 salary. [3]
The July 2026 White House staff report to Congress lists Cheung as an employee, assistant to the president and director of communications with an annualized salary of $195,200. This is a published federal payroll rate rather than income from his earlier UFC role or the Trump political committee. [12]
White House director of communications, 2025–2026
On January 20, 2025, Cheung began his White House post; the January 24 staffing announcement placed him in the communications office alongside press secretary Karoline Leavitt and principal deputy communications director Alex Pfeiffer. Deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich was listed as overseeing the wider communications, public liaison and cabinet-affairs portfolio. [13]
The communications director typically oversees longer-range media strategy, public messaging coordination and rapid response. The press secretary is a separate official responsible for regular briefings and daily press operations. The roles can collaborate without being the same office, and the published titles show which job Cheung actually held. [13]
On November 6, 2026, the White House published a release naming Stephen Miller as chief of staff succeeding Susie Wiles, including a statement from Cheung praising Miller's longstanding work with Trump. The public release documents Cheung's expressed support and their place in the same administration; it does not independently prove a secret role in the personnel decision. [14]
By November 2026 the press-secretary role had passed from Leavitt (departed August) to Katie Zacharia (briefly in October) and was vacant following her departure, according to Reuters and AP reports. Despite speculation about possible successors and White's November briefing-room appearance, official public sources continued identifying Cheung as White House communications director. [8] [14]
Media practices, public controversies and exact organizational ties
Cheung's press statements often sharply attacked publications and political opponents. In November 2024, major news organizations quoted him dismissing some critical reports about Trump as politically motivated and using unusually harsh language toward former administration officials and rival candidates. The individual statements can be checked against their original publication dates; they are not treated as proven factual findings simply because a government spokesman issued them. [10] [11]
His professional links include Donald Trump (2016/2024 campaign and White House employer), JD Vance (2024 transition ticket and organizational work), Susie Wiles (2024 campaign co-management and the first White House chief-of-staff period), and Stephen Miller (2025–2026 White House colleague and Cheung's November 2026 public statement). These relationships have different dates, offices and forms of evidence; none automatically implies personal control of the other's finances or policies. [1] [13] [14]
2026 political communications and historical navigation
Cheung's communications work continued amid the November 3, 2026 midterm elections, White House leadership reorganization and unsettled press secretary appointment. President Trump's public UFC relationship and Cheung's 2013–2016 UFC employment make the sports-to-political communications connection visible, but only documented meetings, instructions and staffing orders can establish his role in a specific media decision. [7] [8]
His campaign and White House positions place him in the institutional network around The Story, Chapter 10. The ten chapters' historical narrative remains unchanged by this Encyclopedia profile.
Connections to The Story
Explore the related political history and source-linked people.
References
- Nov 15 2024 Trump–Vance official transition announcement, Cheung communications and Sergio Gor personnel appointments
- U.S. federal 2017 White House payroll, Steven Cheung special assistant communications projects
- Original White House Cheung OGE Form 278e, signed Oct 16 2025, reported campaign/transition consulting income
- KCRA Sacramento report on Cheung parents' immigration, upbringing and Sacramento State attendance
- Axios Nov 15 2024 profile, early California campaigns and UFC career
- Reuters Nov 7 2026 UFC staff employment history and Trump-Dana White ties
- Reuters Nov 2026 Trump asks Dana White to be press secretary and Cheung response
- AP Nov 9 2026 Dana White appearance, declined press secretary offer
- 2017/2025 public White House staff salary reports compiled at OpenPayrolls
- Washington Post November 2024 profile of Cheung press messaging and opponents
- National Review Nov 2024 profile, Trump campaign and UFC communications
- 2026 Annual Report to Congress on White House Staff, Cheung $195,200
- White House Jan 24 2025 communications staffing announcement
- White House Nov 6 2026 Stephen Miller chief of staff appointment and Cheung quoted statement
Research updated November 13, 2026. Campaign and transition contracts, federal employment, historical statements and 2026 roles are separately dated.