WASHINGTON (AP) — Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is out of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, the White House said Monday, after multiple allegations of abuse of power in her position, including having an affair and drinking on the job.
Chavez-DeRemer is the third member of the Trump cabinet to leave her post after Trump shot His embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March and knocked down Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month.
In a statement posted on social media, Chavez-DeRemer praised Trump and wrote, “I am proud that we have made significant progress in advancing President Trump’s mission to bridge the gap between business and labor and always put the American worker first.”
Unlike other recent cabinet departures, Chavez-DeRemer’s departure was announced by a White House aide, not the president on his social media account.
“Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the administration to take a position in the private sector,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said on social media site X. “She has done a phenomenal job in her role protecting American workers, enforcing fair labor practices and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives.”
He said Keith Sonderling, the current deputy labor secretary, would become acting labor secretary in her place. NOTUS newspaper was the first to report Chavez-DeRemer’s resignation.
The Labor Chief, family members faced numerous charges
Chavez-DeRamer’s departure follows reports that began to surface in January that she was under a series of investigations.
A New York Times report last Wednesday revealed that the Labor Department’s inspector general was reviewing material showing that Chavez-DeRemer and her top aides and family members sent personal messages and requests to new staff members.
According to the newspaper, Chavez-DeRemer’s husband and father exchanged text messages with young female staff members. Some of the staffers were directed by the secretary and her former deputy chief of staff to pay attention to her family, people familiar with the investigation told the Times.
The messages were revealed as part of a broader investigation of Chavez-DeRamer’s leadership that began after the New York Post reported in January that a complaint filed with the Labor Department’s inspector general accused Chavez-DeRemer of having a relationship with the subordinate.
She also faced allegations that she drank alcohol on the job and that she tasked aides with planning official trips for mostly personal reasons.
Late Monday, on her personal X account, Chavez-DeRemer posted: “The allegations against me, my family and my team have been made by high-ranking state actors who have coordinated with the biased news media and continue to undermine the mission of President Trump.”
Both the White House and the Labor Department initially said reports of wrongdoing were unfounded. But official denials became less complete as more allegations surfaced — and when Chavez-DeRemer might be out of a job became an open question in Washington.
At least four Labor Department officials have already been forced out of their jobs as the investigation progressed, including Chavez-DeRemer’s former chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, as well as a member of her security with whom she was accused of having an affair, The New York Times reported.
“I think the secretary showed a lot of wisdom in resigning,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Monday after her departure was made public.
She enjoyed union support – rare for a Republican
Confirmed to Trump’s cabinet by a vote of 67-32 in March 2025, Chavez-DeRemer is a former member of the House of Representatives who had represented a pace district in Oregon. She enjoyed unusual support from unions as a Republican, but lost re-election in November 2024.
In her only term in Congress, Chavez-DeRemer supported legislation that would make it easier to unionize at the federal level, as well as a separate bill aimed at protecting social security benefits for public sector workers.
Several prominent labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, endorsed Chavez-DeRemer, who is a teamster’s daughter, for Secretary of Labor. Trump’s decision to pick her was seen by some political observers as a way to appeal to voters who are members of or affiliated with labor organizations.
But other powerful labor leaders were skeptical when she was tapped for the job, unhappy that Chavez-DeRemer would pursue a union-friendly agenda as part of the new GOP administration. At her Senate confirmation hearing, some senators questioned whether she would be able to maintain that reputation in an administration that laid off thousands of federal employees.
She was a key figure in Trump’s deregulatory push
Aside from reports of wrongdoing in recent months, Chavez-DeRemer had been one of Trump’s lowest-profile Cabinet picks, but took key steps to advance the administration’s deregulatory agenda during her tenure.
For example, the Department of Labor last year moved to rewrite or repeal more than 60 workplace regulations she saw as outdated. The returns included minimum wage demands for home health care workers and persons with disabilities, and rules governing exposure to harmful substances and safety procedures in mines. The effort drew condemnation from union leaders and workplace safety experts.
The proposed changes also included eliminating a requirement that employers provide adequate lighting for construction sites and seat belts for agricultural workers in most cases. transportation provided by the employer.
During Chavez-DeRemer’s tenure, the Trump administration canceled millions of dollars in international grants that a division of the Labor Department administered the fight against child labor and slave labor worldwideending their work that had helped reduce the number of child laborers worldwide by 78 million over the past two decades.
In her statement Monday, Chavez-DeRemer said, “As my time serving in the administration comes to an end, that does not mean I will stop fighting for American workers.”
The Department of Labor has a broad mandate as it relates to the U.S. workforce, including reporting the U.S. unemployment rate, regulating workplace health and safety standards, investigating disputes over minimum wage, child labor, and overtime wages, and enforcing union organizing and illegal termination laws.
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By SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press
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