Back at the White House, on the evening of his second inauguration, President Trump did something on the first day that his predecessor never bothered to do in four years: He sat and took questions in the Oval Office as reporters peppered him with questions.

It was the newest set piece in the second season of Trump, and in that moment, as the president signed executive order after executive order, an obscure staffer was catapulted to unlikely stardom. Will Scharf, the new White House staff secretary, stood by the president’s side and before the cameras, announcing the actions just before Trump put his black Sharpie to paper.

Asked Trump, “What’s this one?” Replied the staffer handing him paperwork bound in a black portfolio, “Withdrawing from the World Health Organization.” Said the president, “Oh, that’s a big one.” In this way, Scharf served as impromptu master of ceremonies for the first step in the attempted erasure of former President Biden’s legacy.

Trump declared a national emergency, deploying the military to the southern border and designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations. He stripped the security clearances of 51 former intelligence officials who erroneously claimed that the now-infamous Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian........

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