Benjamin Henry “Ben” Moss is an American lawyer and political adviser who was appointed White House Staff Secretary and Assistant to the President by Donald Trump in August 2026.
Moss is from Los Angeles, California. He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara from 2011 to 2014, earning a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy with highest honors.
From 2015 to 2018, Moss attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he earned his Juris Doctor. He served as editor-in-chief of the Chicago Journal of International Law and participated in the Federalist Society, the Edmund Burke Society, and the Texas Law Society.
Moss’s publicly available biographies provide little information about his Jewish upbringing or current religious practice. His professional profile, however, states that he served as president of the law school’s Jewish Law Students Association, documenting his involvement in Jewish student life.
After graduating from law school, Moss joined the Houston office of Vinson & Elkins as an associate in September 2018. He left the firm in August 2019 to serve for one year as a judicial law clerk at a federal appeals court in Jackson, Mississippi. Moss returned to Vinson & Elkins in September 2020 and remained there until March 2023. His practice focused on appellate litigation, including cases before federal courts of appeals.
Moss entered government service in 2023 as general counsel to J.D. Vance, then a Republican senator from Ohio. In that position, he served as a senior legal adviser in Vance’s Senate office. After Vance was elected Vice President in November 2024, Moss joined the Office of the Vice President in January 2025 as director of domestic policy. He was among a group of senior Senate aides whom Vance brought into the executive branch.
In February 2026, Moss moved to the White House as deputy assistant to the president and deputy staff secretary. The office coordinates the flow and review of documents sent to the president, prepares the daily briefing book, and helps ensure that presidential actions, speeches, correspondence, events, and press releases are properly vetted.
On August 27, 2026, Trump announced that Moss would become assistant to the president and White House Staff Secretary. He succeeded Will Scharf, who was appointed White House counsel. Trump cited Moss’s service as deputy staff secretary and his earlier work for Vance, describing him as a “top student” and a “patriot.” As staff secretary, Moss would be responsible for managing the process through which memoranda, executive orders, legislation, and other official materials reach the president for review and decision.
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Reese Gorman, “JD Vance Is Bringing His Senior Senate Staff to His VP Office,” NOTUS, (January 17, 2025).
“Trump Names Ben Moss, Who Was President of Jewish Group in Law School, White House Staff Secretary,” JNS, (August 27, 2026)
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