GRINDING GEARS

Trump’s Attack Dog Wildly Smears Republican in White House Teardown Feud

Steven Cheung suggested that Republican Adam Kinzinger posted half-naked photos on a gay dating app.

Donald Trump’s top attack dog has wildly smeared a former Republican congressman in a bitter social media feud over the president’s White House destruction and ballroom extension.

Adam Kinzinger has been a rare Republican dissenter against the White House rebuilding efforts.

“Will not a single elected Republican speak up,” he lamented on X, sharing a video of the East Wing being torn down by heavy machinery.

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Outspoken White House Communications Director Steven Cheung did not take the dissent lying down, responding to Kinzinger with a personal jab. “The ballroom is going to look so spectacular. Even your simple and dumb a-- will want to go,” he said.

This prompted Kinzinger, who was on the House Jan. 6 committee, to deploy a personal jab of his own, sharing Cheung’s X display picture with the caption, “Literally you.”

The argument took a nasty turn at this point with the notoriously foul-mouthed Trump aide sharing a collage of images that suggest the Illinois Republican, who is married to a woman and has a young child, was active on the gay dating app Grindr.

“Literally you,” Cheung, a former spokesperson for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, wrote alongside the images. “Adam Kinzinger loves showing off his tattoo on GRINDR,” reads the caption fixed to the collage. The photographs appear to be from the disappearing photo-sharing app Snapchat.

One shows a man’s flexed left bicep, with a tattoo depicting the U.S. Air Force pilot’s badge. However, two of the other images, the only ones where Kinzinger’s face is visible, show that his tattoo is on his right bicep.

The remaining photographs show a man’s torso and a man taking a mirror selfie showing off part of his rear. The images do not show any faces or tattoos.

Kinzinger earned Trumpworld’s ire when, alongside Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, he served on a select committee of the House of Representatives established to investigate the Capitol attack in 2021.

Kinzinger voted to impeach Trump over his role in the incident before leaving Congress in 2022 after not seeking re-election.

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Kinzinger joined the U.S. Air Force in 2003, where he became a pilot. He first flew refueling missions around the world, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, before moving to surveillance aircraft. Over two decades of service, he was deployed multiple times, earned six Air Medals, and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Kinzinger also served with the Air National Guard, including a 2019 deployment to the U.S.–Mexico border, before retiring after 20 years in uniform.

Cheung was never in the military. He dropped out of California State University before he got his start in politics as an intern for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, then worked on several Republican campaigns, including for John McCain in 2008 and Donald Trump in 2016.

Cheung and Kinzinger have been contacted for comment.

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