All posts tagged "steven cheung"

Trump aide Steven Cheung melts down as MSNBC host questions president's mental health

Top White House aide Steven Cheung didn't hold back his raging response when he caught wind of Lawrence O'Donnell's psychological assessment of President Donald Trump, according to the Daily Beast.

O'Donnell wondered aloud on his MSNBC show whether Trump's mental health was suffering because he was unable to answer whether it was the president's duty to uphold the Constitution.

“Every high school student in America is supposed to know the answer to that question, which is one word: 'Yes,'" O’Donnell said. “But Donald Trump’s answer was ‘I don’t know’—which could be a sign of mental illness or could be a sign of early-stage dementia."

O'Donnell continued, "In Donald Trump’s case, stupidity is the most innocent explanation for his ‘I don’t know.' But during mental health month, we have a right to consider other possibilities.”

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In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung raged that O'Donnell was “clearly suffering from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his brain.”

Cheung then changed the subject to former President Joe Biden.

“President Trump aced his cognitive test, meanwhile Joe Biden’s handlers refused to allow him to take one out of fear of what was apparent to the entire world—his mind was severely in decline and lacked the intelligence to lead the country,” Cheung said. “People like Lawrence are complicit in the coverup to hide Biden’s condition, and he knows he’ll have to live the rest of his life reconciling the fact he helped deceive the American people.”

Daily Beast reporter Tom Sanders wrote, "Cheung has made a habit of accusing anyone who criticizes the president of having 'Trump Derangement Syndrome'—including The Daily Beast Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles, whom he called a 'piece of s---' who suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome in an unhinged rant."

On the Daily Beast Podcast, Coles ridiculed Cheung's "recycled insults."

“I wanna recommend, as my medical diagnosis for Steven Cheung, that he buy a thesaurus,” she said. “Get a little more creative.”

Read the Daily Beast story here.

'Open hostility': Reporters despair at what Karoline Leavitt has done to the White House

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has created an atmosphere of hostility, mockery, and disparagement in the briefing room, a veteran reporter told Politico.

In a lengthy profile, correspondent Adam Wren quoted Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent with The New York Times, who has covered 17 press secretaries over his career.

Wren wrote, "He told me that the current tension 'goes beyond anything that is traditional to the point of open hostility, and mockery and disparagement in a way that’s meant for the larger audience, not for the people in the room.'"

Baker continued, “They don’t view the briefing room as a way to impart information. They don’t even view the briefing room as a way to shape reporters’ stories. They view the briefing room as a theater for the MAGA audience.”

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Wren wrote that Leavitt "relishes dispatching mainstream reporters’ hardballs with dismissive quips and, increasingly, welcomes right-leaning influencers’ softballs."

In addition, the report claimed that Leavitt "has amped up Trump’s anti-media tirades while playing loose with the facts, breaking longstanding precedents for how the White House interacts with the press. Reporters in the briefing room, while friendly with Leavitt interpersonally behind the scenes, are worried about what norms will be shattered next in the administration’s assault on the media."

Wren wrote that Leavitt and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung "are considered by reporters to be the good cop and the bad cop, respectively," although "Leavitt has confided with some that she sometimes wishes she could be known as the bad cop. After all, when the briefings start and the cameras turn on, Leavitt can be openly hostile to the press and has helped foster the conditions necessary for such hostility to occur."

Read the Politico article at this link.

How Harris and Walz are fighting Trump with joy and positivity — and winning

Evolutionary biologists know why humans spend disproportionate energy on negative thoughts compared to positive: Teasing out threats, real or perceived, is a basic tool of survival.

Around 3 a.m. isn’t the only time negative thoughts seize us. Even when we’re at ease, evolutionary instincts cause us to seek out whiffs of threat. Commonly called the human “negativity bias,” we train our mental energy on perceived danger, releasing cortisol and triggering flight or fight instincts that have served mammals from the beginning.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is a master of manipulating people with negativity and fear. He energized a naked tribalism movement on us vs. them vitriol, with immigration, crime, race and “vermin” of different political views topping his greatest hits. Vice presidential choice J.D. Vance’s negative divisiveness is next level: Hillbilly vs. Silicon Valley, parent vs. childless, cat ladies vs. those with a proper stake in democracy. Almost overnight, Vance served up new antagonisms between voter categories we didn’t even know existed.

Negativity sells. It also kills.

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Stewing in frustration over Vice President Kamala Harris’ meteoric rise, Trump can hardly restrain his jealousy. In a revolting pique of petty, confirming that Trump would destroy America for his own personal gain, Trump insulted American hostages’ release from Russia, praising Russian President Putin instead. He then drooled giddy when the stock market tanked last week, clucking, “TRUMP CASH vs. KAMALA CRASH!” then was silent when the market rebounded as if the “crash” had never happened.

Trump/Vance obviously understand that negativity sells, they recognize fear in particular as our most primal and powerful motivator. But too many years in the Trump hate machine, amplified by Fox News and similar propaganda is also making people sick. Not only do negative thoughts lead to aggression and war, but compulsive or repeated negativity makes people physically ill.

It’s fairly well known that Trump supporters are more likely to die of COVID-19 and gun-related homicides than the general population; less known is that negative thoughts create neural pathways in the brain that lead to illnesses too. Grievance politics in general may be killing its own adherents, as researchers have shown a gap in mortality rates between Republican and Democratic counties in nine out of 10 causes of death.

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Even setting aside COVID deaths, American mortality rates differ by politics across the board, leading one researcher to conclude that “Political environment is a core determinant of health.” The Marquee Medical team explains that “people with high levels of negativity are more likely to suffer from degenerative brain diseases, cardiovascular problems, digestive issues, and [they] recover from sickness much slower than those with a positive mindset.”

It’s more than a theory. Neural pathways caused by nonstop exposure to Trump’s repetitive, negative thoughts can be detected physically, as most features of neural circuits can be visualized with magnetic resonance imaging.

Happy warriors Harris and Walz to the rescue

The outpouring of enthusiasm for Harris and America’s dad, Tim Walz, suggests voters have grown tired of political negativity. As veep, Harris faced relentless Republican criticism over her laugh, with GOP detractors panning her as unserious and intellectually weak. But now that she is in command, her intellect has become irrefutable, allowing her to embrace her laughter and smile often on the podium.

Anyone who missed Harris-Walz’ first rally together should treat themselves and watch it. It was a joyful, positive event. Even when Walz delivered his obligatory zingers about Trump and Vance, he did it with humor and without nastiness.

When he pointed out that crime was up under Trump, he added, laughing, “that's not even counting the crimes he committed!” On Trump’s abortion and culture wars, he delivered a plain spoken message: “In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices that they make. Even if we wouldn’t make the same choices for ourselves, there’s a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”

Joy, common sense and positivity have emerged as Harris/Walz superpowers.

A tale of two tarmacs

Trump has evidently assigned Vance to troll Harris and Walz as they make their way through several swing states to introduce themselves to voters.

In an episode that can only be described as weird, by now a cliché, Vance showed up on the same tarmac after Harris had just landed in Air Force Two in Eau Claire, Wis.

He got out of his plane with an entourage, and en masse, they chased down reporters assembled for Harris so Vance could insult Harris and talk about AF2 becoming his plane. The group Vote Vets shared a video of the tarmac episode, observing, “This creepy weirdo is giving off serious stalker vibes.”

After the tarmac episode, Trump’s juvenile spokesman / pit bull Steven Cheung posted on X that they’d make sure Air Force Two is “deep cleaned because Lord only knows what Kamala Harris and her team have done on there. The smell alone on that plane must be crazy.”

I’m rolling in the vibe shift

The contrast between Trump/Vance hate and Harris/Walz joy seems to be resonating with voters.

Partly, it’s relief. Our political discourse has been poisoned with Trump’s hate-filled spittle for nearly a decade. We have watched Trump bully so many people that watching Harris/Walz laugh at him delivers a catharsis. Everyone likes to see a bully get his comeuppance, seeing him get laughed at is a special treat. When the laughter comes from his would-be victim — e.g., the one he tries hardest to dominate and bully — it’s delicious.

Walz first tapped the psychological power of calling Trump/Vance “weird” instead of dangerous. The terms aren’t mutually exclusive, but, Walz intuits, repeatedly warning about how Trump threatens our 250 year old democracy gives him too much power.

Walz advised, “Don’t lift these guys up like they’re some kind of heroes. Everybody in this room knows — I know it as a teacher — a bully has no self-confidence. A bully has no strength. They have nothing.”

Not only does worrying about Trump’s Hitler parallels strengthen him, but having Walz defang “socialist” as free lunches for poor students so they can learn and stay off the streets already just feels right. It feels like the homespun truth America has been waiting for.

Walz said, in his first rally with Harris,“Thank you, Madam Vice President, for the trust you put in me, but maybe more so, thank you for bringing back the joy.” Optimism for America’s future, personal freedom, and yes, joy, are new welcome strangers in the public square.

Like most unhealthy habits in life, negative thoughts can become addictive, and can kill you. The good news is, this is an addiction that can be broken. It’s been said that it takes 21 days to truly break a habit. We have almost 90 days.

I, for one, am thrilled to join my country on our joyous, about-damn-time path to recovery.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25 year litigator specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

'Cat got your tongue?' Trump aide lashes out at Kamala Harris' '15 days of silence'

As the U.S. economy dipped Monday, Donald Trump's famously triggered aide accused his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, of not only causing an inflation and border crisis but of ducking the media for more than two weeks.

The U.S. experienced a frightening Monday stock market plunge reminiscent of a 1987 crash that spread around the world. The S&P 500 dropped 3 percent — its worst day in nearly two years — as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 1,000 points, or 2.6 percent, and the Nasdaq composite fell 3.4 percent.

The dip sparked Steven Cheung to issue a rant, blaming the Democratic vice president for everything from the stock market to the border crisis, saying the stock market has "completely cratered and the Kamala inflation crisis continues to be a boot on the neck on every American trying to survive."

He added: "We are on the brink of witnessing World War III erupt while Kamala pussyfoots around with terrorists. And the Kamala Border Crisis continues to rage on with criminals and terrorists streaming across the border wreaking havoc into every American community."

Cheung said Harris and her campaign have focused too much on "being brat and doing weird things with coconuts" — and accused them of "ducking media interviews, ignoring press questions, and avoiding debate challenges" for 15 days.

"15 days of silence," said Cheung. "What's the matter, Kamala, has the cat got your tongue?"

Cheung is no stranger to incendiary statements.

Last month, he reacted with fury over a Daily Beast report in which GOP sources gossiped over J.D. Vance. In that statement, he referred to the Beast's loose-lipped sources as "bottom-feeding parasites."

J.D. Vance or JD Vance? Depends who you ask — including Trump.

MILWAUKEE — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump named his vice presidential running mate today.

It's Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.

Or is it Sen. JD Vance of Ohio?

Depends on who you ask.

Trump's official announcement Monday afternoon used "JD."

So did Republican National Committee Vice Chairwoman Lara Trump. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), is also on Team "JD" — even if he's in no way a supporter of the man who could become vice president.

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But in an email to supporters, the National Republican Congressional Committee went a different route, urging supporters to "congratulate J.D. Vance" with an online message and political donation.

Make America Great Again Inc., a flagship pro-Trump super PAC, also employed punctuation in J.D.

Vance himself doesn't help clarify matters.

His best-selling book "Hillbilly Elegy" lists "J.D. Vance" as the author.

An image of the cover of Hillbilly Elegy, written by J.D. Vance, Donald Trump's newly named vice presidential nominee. (HarperCollins)

His official U.S. Senate page says "JD Vance."

And Vance has it both ways on X, formerly Twitter, where his account names him both as "J.D." and "JD."

X account for Sen. J.D. Vance. (X)

Raw Story joins various publications including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times in using "J.D." in its articles. CNN and Fox News, which agree on little, both employ "JD."

So, Raw Story put the question to the Trump campaign: For the purposes of the Trump-Vance ticket, which style do you prefer?

"JD (no periods in between letters)," Trump spokesman Steven Cheung emailed back.

Either way, Vance's "J.D." or "JD" are the initials of "James David."