Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leaving President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, according to the White House, as Washington officials and lawmakers responded to a growing set of abuse-of-power allegations involving the Labor Department. In a Monday announcement, the White House said Chavez-DeRemer would depart the administration and that she would be replaced in the short term by Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling.
White House communications director Steven Cheung made the personnel change public on the X social media platform, saying Chavez-DeRemer “will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector.” Cheung added that Sonderling would become acting labor secretary “in her place,” and he characterized Chavez-DeRemer’s tenure as focused on protecting workers and implementing fair labor practices.
Chavez-DeRemer’s departure also marks the third Cabinet exit during Trump’s current term after Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March and ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month. The White House aide announced Chavez-DeRemer’s exit, rather than Trump posting the announcement on his social media account, according to the report.
In a statement posted on social media, Chavez-DeRemer praised Trump and said, “I am proud that we made significant progress in advancing President Trump’s mission to bridge the gap between business and labor and always put the American worker first.” In a separate late Monday post on her personal X account, she also said, “The allegations against me, my family, and my team have been peddled by high-ranked deep state actors who have been coordinating with the one-sided news media and continue to undermine President Trump’s mission.”
The allegations in question were described in reports that began circulating in January, when the Labor Department inspector general was said to be reviewing material that involved Chavez-DeRemer, her top aides and family members. A New York Times report said that Chavez-DeRemer and her family and staff contacts exchanged personal messages and requests with young staff members and that some of the staffers were instructed to “pay attention” to Chavez-DeRemer’s family.
Those reports also described the allegations as part of a broader investigation into Chavez-DeRemer’s leadership, after a complaint filed with the Labor Department inspector general accused Chavez-DeRemer of a relationship with a subordinate, the report said. Additional allegations described in the reporting included claims that Chavez-DeRemer drank alcohol on the job and that she directed aides to plan official trips for primarily personal reasons.
As the investigation progressed, the reporting said at least four Labor Department officials were forced out of their jobs, including Chavez-DeRemer’s former chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, as well as a member of her security detail who was accused of having the affair. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Monday that he thought Chavez-DeRemer demonstrated “a lot of wisdom in resigning” after the departure was made public.
Chavez-DeRemer, who was confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet on a 67-32 vote in March 2025, had previously served in the House and represented a swing district in Oregon. The report said she lost reelection in November 2024 but had drawn unusual support from labor unions as a Republican, including backing from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with political observers viewing her selection as an effort to appeal to labor-affiliated voters.
During her term as labor secretary, the Labor Department pursued rollbacks and rewrites of some workplace regulations, according to the report. It cited Labor Department actions that it said would eliminate or revise more than 60 workplace regulations, including minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities, rules governing exposure to harmful substances and safety procedures at mines, and other provisions such as lighting requirements at construction sites and seat-belt requirements in employer-provided transportation.
The report also said the administration canceled millions of dollars in international grants that a Labor Department division administered to combat child labor and slave labor, which it said ended work that had helped reduce the number of child laborers worldwide by 78 million over the last two decades. In her statement Monday, Chavez-DeRemer said, “While my time serving in the Administration comes to a conclusion, it doesn’t mean I will stop fighting for American workers.”