These binders filled with government orders that President Donald Trump has been signing with a flourish and a wide-tipped Sharpie throughout his first week in workplace do not simply magically seem earlier than him.
White Home workers secretary Will Scharf has been a outstanding a part of the tableau, standing at Trump’s facet and teeing up the leather-bound folders, one after the other, for the president. With the cameras rolling, Scharf supplies working narration on what Trump is signing, at occasions leaning into a close-by microphone on the president’s route.
He was by Trump’s facet Thursday because the president signed orders and memoranda on the Resolute Desk within the Oval Workplace. And within the first hours of Trump’s return to energy, he was there with Trump on the Capitol, at a close-by rally and the White Home because the president scrawled his identify on stacks of orders implementing his agenda.
Scharf does not simply act the straight man as Trump talks up his orders, cracks jokes and fields questions from reporters. He additionally performs a key position within the White Home, overseeing the move of knowledge and enterprise coming to and from the president.
A have a look at Scharf and his new job:
The presidential in-box
The workers secretary’s job has historically concerned managing the papers that cross the president’s desk. It serves nearly as air site visitors management for the West Wing — monitoring the drafting and approval of memos and statements as they work their solution to the president’s desk after which out to the world.
The “StaffSec” coordinates the work of the White Home coverage, communications and authorized groups as info flows across the constructing, and historically is a impartial arbiter in coverage debates.
The workers secretary has practically unparalleled visibility to the goings-on of the West Wing and leads one of many least-known however most impactful groups in a well-functioning White Home.
Who’s Will Scharf?
Scharf was a member of Trump’s authorized workforce earlier than becoming a member of the brand new administration. He beforehand labored as a coverage director for former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and on the marketing campaign of 2016 Republican gubernatorial candidate Catherine Hanaway.
He graduated from Princeton and Harvard Legislation Faculty earlier than shifting to Missouri in 2011 to clerk for Choose Raymond Gruender on the eighth Circuit Courtroom of Appeals. He additionally labored as an assistant U.S. lawyer.
Trump tapped Scharf to be his workers secretary in November, citing his expertise as a lawyer on the long run president’s prison instances and Scharf’s work throughout the first Trump presidency getting judges and justices confirmed. They included U.S. Supreme Courtroom Justices Brett Kavanaugh — who himself served as White Home workers secretary for President George W. Bush — and Amy Coney Barrett.
He helped Trump combat his authorized battles
Scharf joined Trump’s authorized workforce in October 2023 and was one of many president’s attorneys within the election interference case introduced by particular counsel Jack Smith. The case went earlier than the Supreme Courtroom, which dominated that presidents take pleasure in sweeping immunity from prison prosecution for official acts.
Scharf is amongst a number of of Trump’s attorneys who’ve been rewarded with spots in his new administration. Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who defended Trump at his hush cash prison trial in New York, each received high-ranking Justice Division posts.
“Will Scharf is a brilliant legal mind who has extensive experience defending President Trump from the witch-hunts against him,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated in an announcement. “Will is perfectly suited to help execute President Trump’s agenda in this important role.”
It is not Scharf’s first time within the public eye
Scharf ran unsuccessfully for Missouri lawyer common in 2024, dropping to incumbent Andrew Bailey. His marketing campaign included a memorable advert wherein the mild-mannered lawyer seems to make use of a grenade launcher to fireplace on a pile of packing containers that have been labeled to seem like they contained authorized paperwork associated to Trump’s prison instances.
