U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Ben Moss, deputy staff secretary at the White House, would become assistant to the president and staff secretary effective on Sept. 2.
Moss, whom the president credited with doing a “tremendous” job in the deputy role, succeeds Will Scharf, who is now White House counsel.
Scharf is Jewish. Moss states on his LinkedIn page that as a student at University of Chicago Law School, where he earned a J.D. in 2018, he was president of the Jewish Law Students Association.
Moss was also editor-in-chief of the Chicago Journal of International Law and a member of the Texas Law Society, Edmund Burke Society and Federalist Society in law school, per his bio. He went to college at University of California, Santa Barbara.
“Ben has been tremendous as deputy staff secretary and, before that, as policy director to the vice president,” Trump stated. “Ben started in government as general counsel to JD Vance in the United States Senate, after serving as a law clerk to a highly respected federal appeals court judge, and a lawyer in private practice.”
“He was a top student at the University of Chicago Law School, one of the best law schools in the country and, more importantly, he is a patriot who loves our beautiful country,” the president said. “He will do a great job as staff secretary.”
The staff secretary’s office “prepares the daily briefing book, which requires close coordination with each component of the White House” and “ensures that the details surrounding presidential actions, speeches, events, correspondence and press releases are properly vetted,” according to the White House.
