Third Trump Cabinet member leaves amid abuse of power allegations

Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s exit put another crack in Donald Trump’s second-term Cabinet and sharpened the question of whether the president is seeing routine turnover or a deeper strain in how his administration is being run. Her departure made her the third Trump Cabinet member to leave this term, following Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi, even as the White House said she was headed for a private-sector job.

Chavez-DeRemer had been confirmed to the Cabinet in March 2025 by a 67-32 Senate vote, a margin that reflected some bipartisan support for the former Republican House member from Oregon’s 5th Congressional District. By April 20, 2026, she was out, and her exit landed amid allegations of misconduct, including abuse of power, an affair with a subordinate and drinking alcohol on the job. The departure was announced by a White House aide rather than by Trump on his social media account, a contrast with the president’s usual style of handling personnel moves.

The churn now reaches beyond one department. AP’s Cabinet tracker listed 21 Cabinet members confirmed as of April 2, 2026, but the latest resignation adds to a growing pattern of turnover that has become harder to dismiss as isolated personnel drama. Acting leadership has already been installed in some of the departures, including Keith Sonderling as acting Labor secretary, underscoring how quickly senior posts have begun to cycle through Washington as the administration tries to keep agencies functioning.

The broader institutional stress reaches well past the Cabinet room. AP and Reuters have reported that the FBI and the Justice Department have been hit by departures over the past year, forcing officials to rebuild staffing, ease hiring requirements and speed recruitment. That kind of pressure matters because cabinet turnover does not stay confined to headlines: it affects how quickly agencies can carry out enforcement, manage policy and maintain internal discipline.

Trump’s second-term Cabinet has been more stable than his first, but the new wave of departures revives a familiar pattern. AP’s historical archive of firings and resignations from Trump’s first presidency shows repeated high-level shake-ups, and the current round suggests that the administration’s management problems remain a live issue. For a White House trying to project control, the loss of another Cabinet secretary under a cloud of abuse-of-power allegations is a warning that executive authority still depends on steadiness below the president, not just force from above.