President Donald Trump’s second Cabinet was never exceptionally diverse from the start. And in the past two months, three women have been fired or resigned.
The first to go, on March 5, was ex-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. Then, less than a month later, Trump ousted former Attorney General Pam Bondi. And on Monday, embattled Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced her resignation.
“Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be leaving the Administration to take a position in the private sector,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement. “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.”
Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican congresswoman from Oregon, has found herself embroiled in several scandals and was the subject of an internal misconduct investigation during her time leading the Labor Department. Chavez-DeRemer had been one of two Latinx Cabinet secretaries, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Only 17 percent of Trump’s second-term Cabinet nominees were non-White, according to a 2025 Washington Post analysis. But compared with his last term, more women have been in Cabinet and other high-level roles: Women initially made up 37 percent of his second-term Cabinet, up from 17 percent. Trump also tapped Susie Wiles as the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff.
Former President Joe Biden’s Cabinet was the most diverse in history: 48 percent of those who served in his Cabinet were non-White, and 45 percent were women.
All three women former Cabinet members had received public blowback for various aspects of their performance in their roles. Noem’s Department of Homeland Security drew nationwide outrage for its aggressive approach to immigration enforcement in major cities, especially after federal immigration officials shot and killed two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis.
Bondi received bipartisan criticism and scrutiny for the Department of Justice’s handling of its files related to Jeffrey Epstein, though Trump’s impetus for firing her was reportedly that he was frustrated about the DOJ not moving aggressively enough to prosecute his political foes.
Chavez-DeRemer was the subject of an internal investigation into allegations of fraud and misconduct at the department, The New York Times reported. They included complaints of a toxic work environment from staffers who said they were asked to perform personal errands for Chavez-DeRemer and her husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, who was reportedly banned from the Labor Department’s headquarters for making unwanted sexual advances toward women staffers.
Investigators also reviewed personal texts from Chavez-DeRemer, her father and her husband to young women staffers at the department, including requests to bring her alcohol on trips, The Times reported.
Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling will take over as acting head of the department, according to Cheung.
While Trump’s Cabinet has been remarkably more stable than in his first term, the jobs of a number of other high-ranking officials have been rumored to be in trouble.
Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who switched parties and became part of the MAGA coalition, was confirmed last year as the nation’s chief intelligence official. She is the only Pacific Islander member of Trump’s Cabinet. The Guardian reported that Trump was asking advisers whether he should replace Gabbard after she declined to denounce a deputy, Joe Kent, who resigned over his disagreements over the U.S. war with Iran.
The women remaining in Trump’s Cabinet are Gabbard; , Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins;, Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have both also drawn criticism and speculation that their jobs were on the line.
Trump has, at times, sidelined women and not punished men in his administration who have found themselves in hot water. He initially nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York as his ambassador to the United Nations, but withdrew her nomination amid concerns over Republicans’ narrow House majority.
After his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, added a journalist to a Signal group chat where he and other top Trump administration officials were discussing military operations, Waltz was fired from his post last spring but instead took the position of UN ambassador. Rubio has since been serving as the acting national security adviser.
In Two Months, Trump’s Cabinet Has Lost Three Women was originally published by The 19th and is republished with permission.
Rep. Lauren Underwood, a lead sponsor of the Momnibus package, said the title change reflects how people commonly refer to the legislation and emphasized that the bill continues to help Black women. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
At an April congressional hearing, Rep. Summer Lee questioned Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about reports that organizations applying for federal dollars had been told to remove words including ‘Black’ from funding applications. (ALLISON BAILEY/NURPHOTO/AP)
