Faced with a federal inspector general’s investigation, a congressional inquiry, police reports and civil rights complaints, Trump’s labor secretary quit — leaving a department her own staff described as toxic and rudderless.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump’s labor secretary, resigned Monday as her office threatened to be engulfed by a convergence of scandals and investigations. The White House confirmed her departure and announced that Keith Sonderling, the deputy secretary of labor, would take over the role of acting secretary.
Why Lori Chavez-DeRemer Resigned as Secretary of Labor
The resignation did not come without warning. Pressure on Chavez-DeRemer has been mounting for weeks as investigators and congressional leaders scrutinize her conduct in office, as well as that of her aides and members of her own family.
The Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General was nearing the end of a months-long investigation into a whistleblower’s allegations of professional misconduct. The claims included allegations that Chavez-DeRemer had an affair with a member of her security force and used department resources for personal travel. Investigators were expected to question her within days.
The investigation was first sparked by an internal complaint, first reported in January by the New York Post, which alleged that Chavez-DeRemer and her top aides regularly organized official trips to destinations where the secretary could socialize and visit family.
“Her resignation is much more a reflection of her commitment to the overall mission: to avoid further distraction within the U.S. Department of Labor,” said Nick Oberheiden, a lawyer representing Chavez-DeRemer in the internal investigation. He was unequivocal that “she did not resign because she broke the law; there is no such finding.”
What the inspector general’s investigation revealed
Investigators heard from dozens of witnesses during the investigation and uncovered evidence that Chavez-DeRemer and her staff abused federal spending limits during personal travel — including spending on luxury hotels, SUV rentals and dining at restaurants, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Four people left or were forced to leave their posts in connection with the investigation.
The probe also examined text messages sent to young employees by Chavez-DeRemer, her former deputy chief of staff, her husband and her father. Those reports, reported by the New York Times last week, suggested the secretary had been drinking during work hours and raised broader concerns about professionalism in the executive office.
A pattern that emerged from the evidence — a police report, civil rights complaints and the inspector general’s findings — painted a picture of a senior office in which junior female employees frequently fielded inappropriate requests and messages from Chavez-DeRemer, her family members and close associates. Women in the executive office were also reportedly instructed to “watch out” for the secretary’s husband and father.
Text messages at the center of the scandal
Two text message exchanges reviewed by the New York Times have become central to allegations against the secretary’s inner circle.
In one exchange in 2025, a staffer apologized to Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, anesthesiologist Shawn DeRemer, for not being in touch and promised to check in. “I’d rather,” DeRemer replied. “I felt forgotten. I thought you were still in church and repenting after being exposed to the demon state of Oregon.”
Chavez-DeRemer herself, in a separate interview, asked an employee to bring her a bottle of “josh Sauvi B” — a reference to white wine — to her hotel room from the hotel bar while they were traveling together on a business trip.
Shawn DeRemer has since been expelled from Labor Department headquarters after female employees accused him of unwanted sexual advances, including filing a police report. Although the police and prosecutors said they would not file criminal charges against him, the situation continued to reverberate through the department’s management. Three separate hostile work environment complaints have been filed against Chavez-DeRemer in recent weeks with the department’s Office of Civil Rights.
Congressional pressure and Grassley’s inquiry
The inspector general’s investigation wasn’t the only threat Chavez-DeRemer faced. Concurrent investigations on Capitol Hill added to the mounting pressure. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has demanded internal records and statements from the Labor Department related to the allegations — a significant escalation that makes it increasingly difficult to contain the prospect of embarrassing revelations.
The combination of a looming federal investigation, a congressional records request and a slew of civil rights complaints left many in Washington — and within the department itself — feeling her tenure was unsustainable.
“The secretary showed a lot of wisdom in resigning and I think she read the room,” said Sen. John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, drew a broader lesson from the episode, arguing that senators charged with confirming future nominees need to raise their standards. “I think what we have to do is wherever the benefit of the doubt has been given in the past, you have to doubt it,” he said.
Who is Keith Sonderling, Acting Secretary of Labor?
Sonderling, a labor lawyer with ten years of experience in public administration, steps into the acting role at a moment of institutional fragility. According to several department employees who spoke to the Times, Sonderling effectively ran the Labor Department throughout Chavez-DeRemer’s tenure — quietly running an agency whose nominal head was described by dozens of staffers as absent and disengaged.
Career employees and political leaders alike characterized the department under Chavez-DeRemer as a toxic workplace, with an absentee secretary and hostile aides who left employees frustrated and demoralized.
Chavez-DeRemer’s short and turbulent tenure
Chavez-DeRemer, 58, served a single term as a Republican congresswoman from Oregon before being nominated to head the Department of Labor. Her nomination had strong support from the Teamsters union, whose president, Sean O’Brien, backed Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign — giving her bipartisan credibility.
The White House, in turn, tried to cast her tenure in a positive light. Spokesman Steven Cheung posted on social media that Chavez-DeRemer “has done a phenomenal job in her role protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives,” and announced that she is “leaving the administration to take a position in the private sector.”
She is leaving the American labor market
Chavez-DeRemer’s departure comes at a delicate time for the US labor market. Job growth has slowed significantly in recent months, wage growth has slowed, and the unemployment rate has risen slightly. Younger workers in particular have struggled to gain ground, and concerns about AI’s long-term impact on employment have continued to grow.
Still, the picture is not uniformly bleak. Layoffs across the economy remain at historically low levels. Many economists attribute the slowdown less to weak demand from employers than to a tight labor supply — partly a result of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. The words economists most often reach for are “stagnant” and “anemic”—cautious rather than catastrophic.
But the woman who presided over that period will be remembered less for the labor market she managed than for the investigations she couldn’t escape.
Keith Sonderling is serving as acting U.S. Secretary of Labor following the resignation of Chavez-DeRemer on Monday.
