As Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis prepared to debate Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Fox News in late November, Steven Cheung — former President Donald Trump’s pugilistic communications director — decided to weigh in. “Ron DeSanctimonious is acting more like a thirsty, third-rate OnlyFans wannabe model than an actual presidential candidate,” Cheung said in a press release, predicting that DeSantis would “flail his arms and bobble his head wildly, looking more like a San Francisco crackhead than the governor of Florida.”
Even by the rough standards of contemporary American politics, the tone was combative. But for Cheung — who has risen to become one of the most powerful people in Trump’s orbit — it was hardly out of the ordinary. He has issued dozens of statements mocking DeSantis (“The only lift he’s received throughout the campaign is from his high-heeled shoes”) and he has no problem making it personal (“Baby girl, who hurt you?” he sniped at DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw in one post on X, formerly known as a tweet).
His barbs are hardly confined to the DeSantis team. When Trump pledged to “root out” the “vermin” living in the United States, some academics compared the former president’s rhetoric to Hitler’s and Mussolini’s. Cheung’s response: “Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their entire existence” — he later clarified that he meant their “sad, miserable existence” — “will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.”