The Daily Beast’s chief content officer Joanna Coles has responded to White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung after he called her a “piece of s–t” in a foul-mouthed X tirade.
Coles rattled Trump’s comms chief after she questioned the president’s eyebrow-raising weight loss claims on an episode of CNN’s Inside Politics podcast Sunday.
“Who knows how he’s lost weight? We know that Robert Kennedy Jr., his health minister, doesn’t approve of people taking Ozempic because he thinks it shows a lack of moral power,” Coles teased after Trump’s appearance at Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome, Italy, a day prior.
Cheung came out fighting for his boss on X, tagging Coles and saying that the Beast’s CCO had made “unsubstantiated claims about President Trump’s health.”
“Joanna is a piece of s–t, clearly suffering from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome rotting her pea-sized brain,” he added.
Now, on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, Coles has responded—telling Cheung to buy a thesaurus.
At the top of the show, released May 1, co-host Samantha Bee quipped that Coles had been “diagnosed with a medical condition,” prompting her to spill the beans on her run-in with Cheung.
CNN had this blithering idiot on @InsidePolitics from the Daily Beast named @JoannaColes making unsubstantiated claims about President Trump’s health. Joanna is a piece of shit, clearly suffering from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome rotting her pea-sized brain.
— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) April 27, 2025
“I did, and I wasn’t going to talk about it—but as you’ve raised it…” the former head of content at Hearst Magazines said.
Unruffled by Cheung’s nuclear tone, Coles added: “The diagnosis came from an unusual source. Not a medical doctor [but] he said I was suffering from—well, first, he said I was a little s–t—but then he said I was suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, TDS, which actually I think you have too.”
Bee confirmed that she too suffers from a bad bout of TDS and put on record that Cheung actually called Coles “a piece of s–t,” rather than a “whole sack.”
The quip relates to Cheung calling author Michael Wolff a “lying sack of s–t” for penning a book about the inside track on Trump’s 2024 White House bid.
“I’m not a whole sack, though I will say that I wonder if I qualify in some way for donating to FMT, which is fecal matter transfer, which is an amazing new technology for health issues,” Coles said.
FMT, also known as a stool transplant, is a procedure that sees poop transferred from a healthy donor to a person with gut issues. The aim is to restore a healthy balance of gut bacteria.
Bee reminded Coles that TDS was not her only affliction. “You also have a pea-sized brain,” the comedienne added.
“Oh, yeah!” Coles responded. Bee brought up Cheung’s reproach of Wolff again, saying that he had likened the author’s cerebral dimensions to that of a mere peanut.
In February, before Wolff released All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America, the president’s communications chief told the Daily Beast: “Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s–t and has been proven to be a fraud.
“He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
Bee noted the parallels in his scolding of both Wolff and Coles.
“I wanna recommend, as my medical diagnosis for Steven Cheung, that he buy a thesaurus,” she quipped. “Get a little more creative.”
Coles agreed, saying: “He’s very limited in his number of insults. Steven, we think you can do better. Come on, ramp it up. Ramp it up!”
“You’re a professional communicator, let’s have…” Bee started, before Coles teased Cheung by cutting across with, “Is he though?”
“Fine, but he could at least do a synonym search online,” Bee added.
The pair decided to lay off Cheung and moved on to railing against Trump’s choice of outfit for the funeral of Pope Frances last week.
The post Joanna Coles Mocks Trump Enforcer for His Recycled Insults appeared first on The Daily Beast.
