President Donald Trump's choice for the next White House counsel reveals the true function that the president's top legal advisors are expected to serve, according to legal analyst Katie Phang.

Speaking on a Tuesday episode of her podcast, attorney and journalist Phang sharply criticized Will Scharf, who currently serves as White House staff secretary and is scheduled to assume the role of White House counsel on September 1. Phang characterized Scharf, who previously worked as Trump's personal attorney, as having "had a history of being a little bit dubious."

The White House Counsel's Office historically functions as the institutional legal adviser to the presidency, providing guidance on executive orders, ethics compliance, congressional oversight responses, and constitutional limits on executive power. The counsel is meant to serve the office rather than the individual occupant, a distinction Phang argued is being erased.

"The only qualification you need is not competency. It is not loyalty to the United States Constitution," Phang said. "It's the capacity to only kiss one person's a—, and that is convicted felon, Donald Trump."

Scharf is the most recent member of Trump's personal legal team to be appointed to a position in close proximity to the president. He follows Todd Blanche, who was confirmed as Attorney General. Phang also identified several other officials who previously operated within Trump's personal legal orbit before securing government roles, including Emil Bove, now a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit; U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan; and Solicitor General John Sauer. According to Phang, these individuals "garnered some cushy positions" after serving Trump personally.

As White House counsel, Scharf will be tasked, in Phang's words, with "running a team of lawyers and advisers who are going to be telling felon Trump whether he is running afoul of the law or not."

"And of course, we all laugh and chuckle when we hear that because it is a day ending in Y when felon Trump runs afoul of the law," Phang remarked.

She argued that the broader pattern of placing former personal lawyers in senior government legal roles — as attorney general, federal appellate judges, White House counsel, and solicitor general — carries serious risks. "They're going to sit there and scheme and strategize a way to try and end-run the law," she warned.

Phang acknowledged that the Trump administration's record of prevailing in court has been "pretty abysmal," but she argued that the more significant harm lies elsewhere. "It is the destruction of values, norms, rule of law, and institutions," she said, referring to what she described as "the havoc they wreak along the way."

Once that damage is done, Phang cautioned, the lasting burden falls to others: "It's the rebuild that we're left with, that we're stuck with when these a— are out of power."