Wine requests, barred husbands, federal probes: Trump's Labor Secretary DeRemer quits amid misconduct probe

Faced with a federal inspector general's probe, a congressional inquiry, police reports and civil rights complaints, Trump's labor secretary has quit — departing a department her own staff described as toxic and rudderless.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump's labor secretary, resigned on Monday as a convergence of scandals and investigations threatened to engulf her office. The White House confirmed her departure, announcing that Keith Sonderling, the deputy secretary of labor, would assume the role of acting secretary.

The Labor Department's inspector general's office had been nearing the conclusion of a months-long investigation into a whistle-blower's allegations of professional misconduct. The claims included accusations that Chavez-DeRemer was having an affair with a member of her security detail and had used department resources for personal travel. She had been expected to be interviewed by investigators within days.

The investigation was first triggered by an internal complaint, initially reported in January by the New York Post, which alleged that Chavez-DeRemer and her senior aides had regularly arranged official trips to destinations where the secretary could socialise and visit family.

"Her resignation is much more a reflection of her commitment to the overall mission: to avoid further distractions within the US 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 violated the law; no such finding exists."

The probe also examined text messages sent to young staff members by Chavez-DeRemer, her former deputy chief of staff, her husband and her father. Those messages, reported last week by the New York Times, suggested the secretary had been drinking during working hours and raised broader concerns about professionalism within the executive office.

The pattern that emerged from the evidence — the police report, civil rights complaints and inspector general findings — painted a picture of a senior office in which younger female staff members frequently fielded inappropriate requests and messages from Chavez-DeRemer, her family members and close aides. Women in the executive office were also reportedly instructed to "pay attention" to the secretary's husband and father.

In one 2025 exchange, a female staff member apologised to Chavez-DeRemer's husband, Shawn DeRemer, an anaesthesiologist, for not being in touch and promised to check in. "You better," DeRemer responded. "I was feeling forgotten. I figured you were still in church repenting after your exposure to the demon state of Oregon."

In a separate exchange, Chavez-DeRemer herself asked a staff member to bring her a bottle of "josh Sauvi B" — a reference to a white wine — to her hotel room from the hotel bar while the two were travelling together on a work trip.

Shawn DeRemer has since been barred from the Labor Department's headquarters after female staff members accused him of making unwanted sexual advances, including filing a police report. Although police and prosecutors have said they will not bring criminal charges against him, the situation continued to reverberate through the department's leadership. In recent weeks, three separate claims of a hostile work environment were filed against Chavez-DeRemer with the department's civil rights office.

The combination of a federal investigation closing in, a congressional demand for records and a string of civil rights complaints left many in Washington — and within the department itself — sensing that her tenure was unsustainable.

"The secretary demonstrated a lot of wisdom in resigning, and I think she read the room," said Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana.

Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, drew a broader lesson from the episode, arguing that senators tasked with confirming future nominees needed to raise their standards. "I think what we have to do is anywhere where benefit of the doubt was given in the past, you've got to doubt," he said.

Career staff and political appointees alike characterised the department under Chavez-DeRemer as a toxic workplace, with an absentee secretary and hostile aides leaving employees frustrated and demoralised.

The White House, for its part, sought to cast her tenure in a positive light. Spokesman Steven Cheung posted on social media that Chavez-DeRemer had "done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives," announcing that she would be "leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector."

Yet the picture is not uniformly bleak. Layoffs across the broader economy remain at historically low levels. Many economists attribute the slowdown less to weak demand from employers than to a constrained labour supply — partly a consequence of the Trump administration's clampdown on immigration. The words economists most commonly reach for are "stagnant" and "anemic" — cautious, rather than catastrophic.

The woman who presided over this period, however, will be remembered less for the labour market she managed than for the investigation she could not outrun.

Keith Sonderling serves as acting US Labor Secretary following Chavez-DeRemer's resignation on Monday.