With pressure mounting from an internal investigation, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer met on Monday in the Oval Office with President Trump and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, to tell them she planned to step down.
Mr. Trump told her that was a good idea, a person with knowledge of the exchange said. The president and his labor secretary agreed that a report from the department’s inspector general, investigating allegations of misconduct against her, was likely to be bad for Ms. Chavez-DeRemer.
Her departure creates an opening for Mr. Trump to replace her with someone who will work with more focus on his administration’s priorities.
Much of the president’s second-term agenda is rooted at the department: a push to drastically expand apprenticeship programs around the country, a return to domestic manufacturing and getting a handle on the future of artificial intelligence and its impact on jobs.
The Labor Department administers work force development grants, which can be used as policy levers. It oversees workplace safety inspections and standards, including for the mining industry — an area of focus for Mr. Trump — and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see a little bit of a reset here from the White House,” said Nick Beadle, a former chief of staff for work force program at the department who now consults on jobs policy. Ms. Chavez-DeRemer, he said, wasn’t particularly aggressive, or a culture warrior.
“It’s really strange to have a secretary who has been this much of a blank page on so many things,” said Mr. Beadle, who writes a newsletter about the department.
Keith Sonderling, the deputy secretary of labor, became acting secretary on Monday. Mr. Sonderling, 43, was a Republican commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 2020 to 2024. Before that, he was the acting and deputy administrator of the Labor Department’s wage and hour division.
Employees and others who worked with the department said Mr. Sonderling effectively ran it during Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s tenure, while she was traveling and remained disengaged from day-to-day policy work.
In recent weeks, as White House officials discussed what to do about Ms. Chavez-DeRemer, some senior aides expressed comfort in Mr. Sonderling’s potentially leading the department, according to a person familiar with the matter. A second person familiar with the matter said that even though Mr. Sonderling was leading the agency, the president had not decided on whom he wanted to fill it permanently.
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The people spoke anonymously to convey White House discussions they were not authorized to disclose.
From the outset, the selection of Ms. Chavez-DeRemer, an Oregon Republican and the daughter of a Teamster, struck many as unusual. She had served a single term in Congress, where she earned a reputation as a supporter of organized labor. She co-sponsored the Protecting the Right to Organize Act — a Democratic push to expand labor protections and collective bargaining rights.
When she lost her re-election bid in 2024, the Teamsters president, Sean O’Brien, recommended her to Mr. Trump to lead the Labor Department. Mr. O’Brien had spoken at the Republican National Convention in 2024 and then declined to endorse a presidential candidate, a tacit backing of Mr. Trump that was a break from labor’s traditional support of Democrats. Mr. Trump’s selection of her was seen as a nod to Mr. O’Brien.
The president sometimes joked about Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s background. “You’re doing a very good job, Lori,” Mr. Trump said at an event last May. He added: “Considering she’s a Democrat.”
Another question is whether the inspector general’s report on Ms. Chavez-DeRemer will be released, even though she left office and did not sit for an interview. The investigation went on for more than three months and involved dozens of interviews.
The department also provided internal records to the office of Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chair of the Judiciary Committee, who had expressed concern about misuse of federal resources at the department.
A photograph of Ms. Chavez-DeRemer remains at the top of a government webpage for National Apprenticeship Week, which is set for next week. In April 2025, Mr. Trump signed an executive order instructing the labor secretary and others to create a pathway for one million new active apprentices.
Tyler Pager and Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting
Rebecca Davis O’Brien covers labor and the work force for The Times.
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