Trump names staff secretary Will Scharf as White House counsel

White House staff secretary Will Scharf speaks during an event with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, August 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP/Alex Brandon)
White House staff secretary Will Scharf speaks during an event with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, August 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP/Alex Brandon)

Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary, will become White House counsel and assistant to the president effective September 1, US President Donald Trump says.

Scharf will become the White House’s top lawyer after overseeing the administrative work of the Oval Office in his current role.

He also led the National Capital Planning Commission, which approved the president’s controversial construction of the White House ballroom.

Scharf was raised Modern Orthodox in New York City and Florida, according to a 2023 profile in Jewish Insider, and attended Phillips Academy in Andover, an elite non-Jewish private prep school in Massachusetts. He told Jewish Insider that he lays tefillin every day and attends Shabbat services at Chabad.

Trump says David Warrington, the current White House counsel, is going to the private sector. Warrington formerly served as a personal counsel and a lawyer for Trump’s 2024 campaign.

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