12-05-2025
Trump's tariffs not reactionary, says longtime adviser
David Scharf, NY lawyer with two decades of Trump ties, highlights Trump's reliance on businesspeople
US President Donald Trump and his administration have been rocking the global trade landscape with talk and the imposition of unprecedentedly high tariffs since the first day in office, claiming that the import taxes will 'make America great again,' which has led some to call the US leader a reactionary, someone seeking to reverse and restore society to a state he believes existed before.
But according to David Scharf, chair and co-managing partner at New York-headquartered law firm Morrison Cohen and someone who has over two decades of history with Trump, that is a major misconception.
'I had a front row seat to three years and ten months of intense preparation to come back to win the (presidential) election, to be able to govern quickly, to have policy papers and executive orders and everything ready to go,' said Scharf in a recent interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul.
'They're not policies that are shooting from the hip you know or just being reactionary. They have the guidance and the viewpoints of the president and he's been working for years to be ready to implement them.'
The relationship between Scharf and Trump had ups and downs including Scharf representing Trump in a legal battle at one point and Trump later suing Scharf and his firm with allegations that they invaded his privacy. Scharf, however, noted that he and Trump reconciled their ties since 2011 and the lawyer now maintains a 'close relationship' with the US leader.
'The president operates within a sphere of 'the status quo has to change,'' said Scharf. 'So he'll say, 'I'm putting on these tariffs. Now come negotiate.' Wherever the negotiation goes, it's going to be better than the status quo.'
Mentioning the importance of reaching out to the White House for communication for all foreign companies, especially Korean firms, the New York-based lawyer said they should focus on the advisors they are working with and the true levels of access and insights they can offer.
'Who are those people who are able to bring forward meetings and conversations and roundtables? ... You need to have the right person knocking on the door to be able to get an answer, but the door is not knocked and it's not a deep state secret or mystery. The invitations are available,' he said.
OpenSecrets, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization specializing in tracking and publishing the money flows in politics, ranked South Korea, including its government and companies, No. 3 on the list of biggest lobbying countries in the US, as South Koreans spent nearly $300 million between 2016 and 2024. As much as Koreans rely on lobbying and lobbyists to get their voices heard in US politics, Scharf pointed out the personnel makeup of the Trump administration.
'This administration is not your traditional Washingtonian type of organization that's been deeply seated in the seats of Washington. It's a little bit of what outsiders would call a 'maverick government' that has a lot of businesspeople in it, starting with the president,' he said.
'They're all people from business and industry, and who do you turn to?" he said of the Trump administration. "You turn to similar people and people that you've trusted during the course of your career.'
As Scharf has represented Korean companies since the 1990s, he said he believes that Korea shares many common values with Trump, such as hard work, innovation and a challenge-seeking culture.
'There's a vacuum in leadership right now here in Korea, and until that sorts itself out, people may feel that Korean businesses can get left behind because the diplomatic edge is not happening,' he noted.
'But my encouragement would be that there's opportunity for Korean companies to directly engage and communicate and participate in what's going on.'
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