Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer Resigns Amid Misconduct Probe, White House Says

Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s exit from the Labor Department deepened the churn inside Donald Trump’s second-term Cabinet and exposed another fault line in an administration already juggling personnel losses, internal disputes and legal combat.

White House communications director Steven Cheung said Chavez-DeRemer was leaving for a position in the private sector. Keith Sonderling, the deputy labor secretary, will serve as acting secretary while the department tries to steady itself after months of fallout tied to a misconduct inquiry.

The departure landed amid a Labor Department inspector general probe into potential misconduct that has drawn in aides, family members and department staff. NBC News reported the inquiry touched on allegations involving a romantic relationship with a subordinate, travel-fraud concerns tied to aides and accusations involving Chavez-DeRemer’s husband. Two top aides had already resigned in early March after a separate travel-fraud investigation, and Roll Call reported that four department employees were forced out in the fallout. CBS News said the Labor Department inspector general’s office declined to confirm whether an investigation existed or what stage it had reached.

Chavez-DeRemer arrived with a political résumé that had once suggested she could bridge factions inside the Republican coalition. The former one-term congresswoman from Oregon’s 5th District and ex-mayor of Happy Valley was confirmed as labor secretary in March 2025 by a 67-32 Senate vote, after bipartisan interest in her past support for the PRO Act. Her departure now makes her the third Cabinet member to leave during Trump’s second term, another sign that the White House has struggled to keep a stable governing team in place. NBC News reported Trump had already replaced Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March and fired Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier in April.

The personnel turbulence was unfolding at the same time FBI Director Kash Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., against The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick over an April 17 article that alleged excessive drinking and unexplained absences. POLITICO reported the story relied on about two dozen anonymous sources, while The Atlantic said it stood by its reporting and would vigorously defend itself. Patel’s suit also said the magazine ignored a pre-publication letter, adding another legal fight to a White House already absorbed by scandals and courtroom battles.

For Trump, the parallel crises at Labor and at the FBI point to the same problem: a governing apparatus spending as much time containing damage as executing policy.