Goodbye, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer: hopefully your replacement isn’t worse

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned this week. She was never a good choice, selected to serve not President Donald Trump’s usual deregulatory agenda but rather to provide constituent service to elements of organized labor—most notably Sean O’Brien’s Teamsters Union—that did not support President Trump’s third attempt at the presidency but at least did not oppose it too much.

Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican Congresswoman who had supported Big Labor’s wish-list PRO Act, had found herself embroiled in controversy for months since the New York Post reported various allegations that she had engaged in an extramarital affair and made questionable travel expenditures. Further reporting by the Washington Examiner found her department was continuing to fund left-of-center advocacy groups with taxpayer dollars despite Trump administration efforts (such as the Department of Government Efficiency drive in its first few months) to crack down on government support for the left-wing NGO blob.

That pressure came to a head this week, with Chavez-DeRemer resigning to take a job in the private sector according to a statement by White House Communications Director Steven Cheung. Her failure in the job was predictable, even if the manner was not.

A factional choice

For those expecting the second Trump administration to follow the successful domestic economic policies of the first, Chavez-DeRemer’s appointment and tenure in office were alarming. As I wrote when she was appointed:

Unfortunately, Teamsters Union president Sean O’Brien is singing siren songs to the incoming 47th administration, seeking to make it more like the Bidenomics of the 46th than the Taft-Hartley Consensus of the 45th. Despite the union not actually endorsing the Trump-Vance ticket, O’Brien is, according to DC trade publication Politico, lobbying for outgoing U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) to be named secretary of labor. For good measure, Randi Weingarten thinks the appointment “would be significant,” a de facto endorsement that should give any supporter of worker freedom and good public policy pause.

Her appointment was little more than fan service to O’Brien and the American Compass faction in the administration that wants to reject the first Trump administration approach and make the AFL-CIO great again, in service of (respectively) their natural Democratic loyalties or their home think tank’s funders in left-wing Big Philanthropy.

Fortunately, Chavez-DeRemer was not a useful tool for the economic leftists operating in the White House and Marble Palace. Her incompetent management of the Department of Labor, which was characterized as resembling an absentee landlord, prevented her from using her post to drive Republican legislators to reject the party’s well-earned skepticism of organized labor.

The interim secretary

While Chavez-DeRemer was allegedly not paying attention to managing her department, Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling, an adherent to the Taft-Hartley Consensus of conventional conservative labor policy, conducted the day-to-day management. This may have led to strong, traditionally conservative policies like the new proposed Fair Labor Standards Act rule on independent contractors, which will effectively restore the pre-Bidenomics understanding of work classifications. As I wrote at the policy’s announcement:

The appointment of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who co-sponsored Big Labor’s Christmas-tree PRO Act while in Congress, as Labor Secretary was cause for great concern that the second Trump administration would be a free playhouse for the Teamsters Union (a major Democratic interest group), the pro-union think tank American Compass (funded by the Hewlett Foundation, a major all-issue left-wing grantmaker), and other factions hostile to business, independent workers, and the free market. Thus far, that does not seem to be the case.

Deputy Secretary Sonderling deserves much of the credit for preventing Big Labor from having the run of a Republican Labor Department. According to the White House, Sonderling will act as Labor Secretary on an interim basis, and the administration could do worse than promoting him on a permanent one. Note also that Sonderling’s predecessor as Deputy Labor Secretary, Biden-appointed critical race theoretician Julie Su, acted as Labor Secretary for almost two full years after it became clear that she did not have the support to be confirmed by a Democratic-controlled Senate.

The danger ahead

I could be forgiven for gloating, as I predicted that Chavez-DeRemer’s appointment would be disastrous (if not the reasons it was). Putting a member of a small minority faction in control of a federal department was always likely to end in tears; as I told the Washington Examiner:

“You’re picking from the distinct minority faction, you don’t have as much choice,” Watson said, referring to Chavez-DeRemer status as a pro-labor Republican. “There just aren’t that many choices. So maybe you do background vetting and find that somebody like Chavez-DeRemer has some issues, but, well, who else am I going to pick? Somebody who’s actually conservative?”

But I will refrain, because until a permanent Labor Secretary is confirmed (or it is made clear that Sonderling will act in the role indefinitely, Su-style) there is great peril. Senators seeking unions’ support like Josh Hawley (R-MO) may attempt to block the confirmation of any Labor Secretary not aligned with the Chavez-DeRemer/American Compass/Teamsters viewpoint, or American Compass’s alumni in the White House may ensure the appointment goes to another Teamsters’ pet. (Here it is worth noting that according to the Teamsters’ latest annual Labor Department disclosures, the union made a $20,000 contribution to American Compass in May 2025.)

If the administration unwisely follows the same counsel that led it to select Chavez-DeRemer, it will deserve the negative consequences it will get. Every time a GOP administration has placed a pro-union individual in the Labor Secretary job to curry favor with organized labor since the 1950s, the result has been a failed tenure. Every time the GOP has put itself in service of the Teamsters Union, the result has been embarrassment for the party. Let history be a warning—as it should have been when Chavez-DeRemer was nominated.

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/goodbye-secretary-chavez-deremer-hopefully-your-replacement-isnt-worse/