WASHINGTON — Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leaving the Trump administration, the White House announced on April 20.

She is the third Cabinet member to depart this year. All are women. Her exit comes amid allegations of misconduct and after multiple outlets reported that an investigation into her leadership was well underway.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in an X post that Chavez-DeRemer would be leaving the administration to take a job in the private sector. He did not say where.

"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," Cheung wrote.

More: Lori Chavez-DeRemer reportedly under investigation for misusing funds

President Donald Trump showered former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi with praise on social media April 2, 2026 — praise that might have suggested an honor, not a firing. The message instead marked the end of Bondi’s brief stint at the Justice Department, after barely a year on the job.

Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was fired by the president on March 5, 2026, not long after lawmakers grilled her about her department’s massive spending.

President Donald Trump fired John Bolton as his national security adviser on Sept. 10, 2019, noting the two "disagreed strongly" on foreign policy matters.   

President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Nov. 7, 2018, after a year of intense scrutiny from the White House.

Sessions' exit, a resignation forced by Trump, was expected for weeks amid Trump's attacks over his attorney general's decision to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

After months of disputes with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, President Trump removed him on March 13, 2018, and nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo to head the State Department.

Anthony Scaramucci was fired as White House Communications Director on July 31, 2017, just 11 days after the man known as "The Mooch" was hired, making it the shortest in White House history.

President Donald Trump showered former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi with praise on social media April 2, 2026 — praise that might have suggested an honor, not a firing. The message instead marked the end of Bondi’s brief stint at the Justice Department, after barely a year on the job.

He said deputy Labor secretary, Keith Sonderling, would become acting head of the department. The announcement came days after the New York Times reported that a Labor Department investigation into her leadership included text messages that DeRemer's husband and father allegedly sent young female members of her staff.

Her departure also comes just weeks after Trump ousted two other members of his Cabinet: former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who also left for an unspecified role in the private sector in early April, and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who he moved to a special envoy role in March.

Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican representative from Oregon, had been responsible for overseeing federal laws and regulations related to unions, workplace conditions such as occupational safety and minimum wage and other labor-related matters.

The New York Post reported in January that she was under investigation for pursuing an inappropriate relationship with subordinate, unnecessary travel on the taxpayer's dime and drinking on the job. The Department of Labor denied those allegations, and the White House called them baseless at the time.

More: Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer faces civils rights complaints

In April, the New York Times reported that DeRemer had three civil rights complaints filed against her by three women who worked inside her office. Among the allegations were that Chavez-DeRemer made staff members run errands for her, including picking up her dry cleaning and cleaning out the closet in her apartment.

Three members of DeRemer's staff and a member of her security detail, who she was accused of having an affair with, have been forced out of their jobs over the allegations, the newspaper reported.

Her husband Shawn was also accused of sexual harassment. He was reportedly barred from the Labor Department’s headquarters after reportedly making unwanted sexual advances toward its employees.

The police department in Washington, D.C., declined in February to charge him with a crime.

The Senate confirmed Chavez-DeRemer as the nation's 30th labor secretary on March 10, 2025.

"The daughter of a Teamster, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer is a successful small businesswoman and the first in her family to graduate from college," her biography on the Department of Labor website reads.

The 57-year-old is marred to Dr. Shawn DeRemer, the bio continues who founded an anesthesia management company and medical clinics across the Pacific Northwest. The couple share twin daughters.

From 2010-2018, she was the first female and Latina mayor of Happy Valley, a city southeast of Portland.

In 2022, Chavez-DeRemer was elected to the House of Representatives to represent Oregon's 5th Congressional District. She served in the House from 2023 to 2025. She ran for re-election in the 2024 election, but lost to Democrat Janelle Bynum.

While serving in Congress, Chavez-DeRemer was one of three House co-sponsors of a pro-union bill called the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, aimed at expanding labor protections for people to organize and bargain in their workplace.

Her interim replacement, Sonderling, is also in charge of the Institute for Museum and Library Services, an agency that funds the nations libraries and museums that was shuttered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

Contributing: Bill Poehler, Salem Statesman Journal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lori Chavez-DeRemer becomes latest Cabinet secretary to leave