Third female secretary purged from Trump's cabinet
Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer certainly deserved to get the boot. But why is it only the women being held to account?
Scandal-ridden Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned from Trump’s cabinet today amid an investigation into allegations that she drinks heavily on the job, slept with a subordinate, and that both her husband and her father have been sexually harassing and inappropriately texting young staff at the Labor Department. Her husband, an anesthesiologist, was actually barred from entering the department headquarters in February after two female staffers accused him of sexually assaulting them, which was caught on camera. But Chavez-DeRemer’s attorney insists that her resignation “is not the result of legal wrongdoings” but rather a “personal decision” to leave the administration for a job in the private sector. (Sure, Jan.)
Chavez-DeRemer is the third cabinet secretary to “resign” or be fired during Trump’s second term, and notably, all three have been women. Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March due to “a culmination of her many unfortunate leadership failures including the fallout in Minnesota, the ad campaign, the allegations of infidelity, the mismanagement of her staff, and her constant feuding with the heads of other agencies, including CBP and ICE,” an administration official told NBC News. A month later, Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi—despite her reportedly begging him not to—because he was frustrated with her mishandling of the Epstein files and failure to prosecute his political enemies.
In reality, while these women were objectively terrible cabinet secretaries, they weren’t any worse than some of the men in the Trump’s cabinet who still have jobs—Trump just found them to be useful scapegoats on which to pin all of the failures of his administration. The drinking allegation against Ms. Chavez-DeRemer is particularly funny to consider in this regard:
The original complaint to the inspector general accused Ms. Chavez-DeRemer and her aides of drinking on the job and keeping a stash of liquor at the office, according to The New York Post, which first reported the complaint in January.
In one text message, Ms. Chavez-DeRemer asked a staff member to bring rosé to her hotel room.
“Do they sell by the bottle,” she asked. The staff member responded that they did, but were out of rosé. Ms. Chavez-DeRemer responded with another selection: “How about the josh sauvi B.”
I’ll admit that it’s a little amusing to read about this woman’s request for josh sauvi B1 amid the list of scandals forcing her departure, considering that some of Trump’s male appointees are so notoriously hammered at all times that social media has taken to nicknaming his cabinet the “Liquor Cabinet.” Pete Hegseth is such a wreckless alcoholic that he had to promise the Senate he would stop drinking if they gave him the Department of Defense. (He’s also been credibly accused of rape and was confirmed to Trump’s cabinet despite that and the drinking problem.) FBI Director Kash Patel announced today that he’s suing The Atlantic over a deeply reported story about his excessive drinking that claims his staff has trouble waking him up sometimes when he’s passed out.
It does feel a little bit like firing the women first would play better with MAGA, who are unclear on whether they believe women should even have the right to vote, much less help Trump to run the country. Republicans like to sprinkle a few women into positions of power for optics, because how can you call Trump a sexist pig if he’s got women like Pam Bondi in his cabinet, openly worshipping and defending him around the big table at those meetings? The Pam Bondis of the cabinet also tend to be the most disposable and the easiest to point a finger at when your poll numbers start circling the drain. Anyone who votes for Trump will be quick to believe him when he blames his problems on a woman. Of course she was a failure; probably a snake who betrayed him, too. Time to get serious and replace her with a man.
Of course, none of this is to defend Chavez-DeRemer—she and her entire family sound like creeps. She took staffers to strip clubs and allegedly pressured the young women to give sexual attention to her husband and dad. During her tenure as labor secretary, the department has broadcast white nationalist propaganda on social media and forced thousands of civil servants out of jobs. She deserves to be fired or exiled whatever exactly happened. But until I see one single man in Trump’s cabinet lose his job for being equally ill-behaved and dysfunctional as the women being thrown under the bus left and right, then this is just more rank misogyny dressed up as an administration having standards.
Relatable queen!