- Introducing DC Insider – your guide to what’s rocking Washington, rattling the White House and setting tongues wagging on Capitol Hill. Sign up HERE.
President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-Deremer has resigned.
‘Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,’ White House Communications Director Steven Cheung posted on X Monday evening.
‘She has 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. Keith Sonderling will take on the role of Acting Secretary of Labor.’
Chavez-Deremer had been the subject of a months-long ethics probe after allegations of misconduct surfaced late last year. Her husband, Shawn Deremer, is also under review by the department’s Inspector General over texts messages to younger female staffers.
According to a text exchange between the secretary’s husband and a staffer from April 2025 that was provided to investigators, Shawn Deremer messaged the aide: ‘Hearing u/r in town. Wishing you would let me know. I could have made some excuses to get out and show u around. Please keep this private.’
The departure was the latest development for the scandal-plagued department following accusations of boozy work trips to strip clubs, trysts at casinos and a ‘stash’ of liquor in the Washington DC office.
Chavez-Deremer and her ex-deputy chief of staff sent texts asking staffers to bring them alcohol during work trips on behalf of the department. At times, the requests came during the middle of the workday.
She even allegedly drank on the job, with the Labor Department Inspector General’s complaint claiming that the Labor Secretary maintains ‘a stash’ of bourbon, Kahlua and champagne at her office in Washington DC.
Additionally, the New York Post has reported that Chavez-DeRemer took her subordinates to a strip club in Oregon last year.
The alleged trip on April 18, 2025 to the club Angels PDX took place at the end of a five-day trip intended for a meeting with the state’s Democratic governor Tina Kotek, a CEO of a truck manufacturer and a tour of an Intel chip center, the Post reported.
According to documents seen by the outlet, a total of $2,890.06 of taxpayer’s money was used for the trip to Oregon.
Further, the former Labor Secretary was allegedly involved with one of her security guards in an affair.
Brian Sloan, the security guard, stepped down from his position last week, after being accused of having a romantic affair with the 57-year-old married Labor Secretary, Politico reports, citing two department officials.
He had previously been placed on leave amid the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General’s probe into allegations that Chavez-DeRemer engaged in unprofessional conduct.
Chavez-Deremer’s husband, Shawn DeRemer, was also steeped in controversy.
He texted young female staffers and was the subject of a sexual harassment probe before being barred from the department’s DC headquarters.
Video of the interaction caught on security cameras shows Dr Deremer ‘giving one of the women an extended embrace’ and has been reviewed by law enforcement.
According to a police report obtained by The Daily Mail, a woman told DC’s Metropolitan Police Department that she was sexually assault in the department’s building on December 18.
The Labor Department and the federal prosecutor’s office later decided against bringing charges against Shawn Deremer.
The secretary’s departure is the third Cabinet-level shakeup Trump’s inner-circle has seen since the start of his second term.
All three have taken place in the last month and a half, with Kristi Noem leaving the Department of Homeland Security in early March and Pam Bondi leaving the Justice Department in early April.
