Donald Trump, who only hires the best, seems to be very very bad at choosing Secretaries of Labor.
His first labor nominee at the start of his first term, fast food executive Andrew Puzder, withdrew his nomination due to criticism that he was mistreating his workers and opposed the minimum wage. Labor Department investigators discovered that franchisees of the Hardee’s chain, whose parent company he ran, had violated federal wage-and-hour regulations in many instances of wage theft. He also employed an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper, and paying no taxes on her work.
His first confirmed Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta, crashed and burned when it was discovered that when he was a Florida prosecutor, he had engineered a sweetheart deal for child rapist and Trump buddy Jeffrey Epstein.
Now his current Labor Secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer seems to be circling the drain as well.
The New York Post first reported late last week that Chavez-DeRemer “is under an internal investigation following an explosive complaint alleging she’s been ‘abusing her position’ by pursuing an ‘inappropriate’ relationship with a subordinate.”
Furthermore,
The former Oregon congresswoman is also accused of drinking in her office during the workday and committing “travel fraud” by having her chief of staff and deputy chief of staff “make up” official trips to destinations where Chavez-DeRemer can spend time with family or friends on the taxpayers’ dime….
Chavez-DeRemer, 57, has welcomed her alleged paramour at least three times to her DC apartment and twice into her hotel room while traveling, alleges a complaint filed with the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Inspector General last week, which has since begun a probe.
The former Oregon congresswoman is also accused of drinking in her office during the workday and committing “travel fraud” by having her chief of staff and deputy chief of staff “make up” official trips to destinations where Chavez-DeRemer can spend time with family or friends on the taxpayers’ dime.
While on one of those trips to Oregon, she allegedly toed her staff to a strip club.
Oops.
Will this be too much even for the ethically-challenged Trump administration? Not if they can help it. They’re trying to stabilize the sinking ship — for now — according to Politico’s Weekly Shift:
Agency spokesperson Courtney Parella referred Shift to comments given to the New York Post that the “unsubstantiated allegations are categorically false.”
“Secretary Chavez-DeRemer has complied with all ethics rules and Department policies and remains fully engaged in carrying out the Department’s work on behalf of this historic Administration,” the statement read.
Happily for the American people, DOL seems to be one of the few agencies that still has an Inspector General who takes his job seriously:
Two of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s top aides were placed on administrative leave Monday amid an investigation into their conduct by the agency’s in-house watchdog, according to two department officials.
A complaint filed with DOL’s inspector general accuses Chief of Staff Jihun Han and his deputy, Rebecca Wright, of devising official events for Chavez-DeRemer in order to facilitate her personal travel, the New York Post reported late Friday. Both Han and Wright worked for Chavez-DeRemer while she served in the House.
And in case you’re wondering, putting the Secretary’s Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff on administrative leave is a big deal.
Finally we have uncovered the fabled waste, fraud and abuse that Elon Musk promised, but never found.
So far, the White House is trying to come to her rescue. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers called the allegations “baseless,” according to the Post. “Secretary Chavez-DeRemer is an incredible asset to President Trump’s team and she will continue advancing the President’s America First agenda,” Rogers said in a statement.
Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claims that Trump is standing behind her. “He thinks that she’s doing a tremendous job at the Department of Labor on behalf of American workers,” Leavitt said in a press briefing Thursday.
Well, I don’t know about what she’s doing for American workers, but she’s certainly trying to be an incredible asset to Trump’s ego. A few months ago she enfolded much of the front of the Department of Labor with a massive photo of Dear Leader. Chavez-deRemer has been on a campaign to become one of Donald Trump’s main fangirls, although it might be hard to beat out Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi. She announced the banner at a Cabinet meeting, where Cabinet Secretaries leave their dignity at the door and compete with expressions of fawning admiration for the Commander in Sleep: “Mr. President, I invite you see your big beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor because you are really the transformational president of the American worker,” Chavez-DeRemer gushed.
I Do Nazi a Problem Here, Do You?
She’s also competing with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for the social media graphics most likely to appeal to the Nazis among us. The graphics hearken back to the days when America was run by muscular white men who cut their hair, went to church and had obedient wives and children. Others are in the style of early 20th century propaganda posters. Union leaders have accused the department of a “rhetorical shift towards white supremacy” according to the Guardian.
Jimmy Williams Jr, general president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, said the labor department had repeatedly imitated “far-right and fascist imagery” online: “When people tell you who they are, believe them.”
Williams continued that “There is a very clear through-line between the administration’s fascist imagery and their violent behavior, like what we all just saw in Minneapolis when Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent.”
Puneet Maharaj, executive director of National Nurses United, the largest nurses’ union in the US, added: “It is no surprise that a fascist regime would post fascist propaganda on a fascist social media network like X, but it remains concerning to see the DOL making posts that serve a fascist, white supremacist agenda.”
Critics point to posters with not only graphics, but also slogans similar to Nazi propaganda (as well as really creepy music).
Recent posts from the agency include a video captioned “remember who you are, American”, with the phrase: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage.”
Users of X, formerly Twitter, and Grok, the platform’s AI tool, highlighted a similarity with the Nazi slogan: “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” (“one people, one empire, one leader”).
“The similarity to that Nazi slogan is bad,” Christopher Hayes, a labor historian and professor at Rutgers University, told the Guardian, expressing alarm over “the motivation behind it, the message, the sentiment and desired outcome”.
The Department pleads not guilty: “The social media campaign was created to celebrate American workers and the American Dream,”
But for a country that was founded on citizens from many homelands, different people and a variety of heritages, it all sounds more an American nightmare than the American dream.
Let Us Pray
The last straw for many was Chavez-DeRemer’s first-ever prayer service for DOL employees shortly before Christmas. (A holiday celebrated by many Christians.)
The Department attempted to make the prayer service multi-denominational by including remarks from Yaakov Menken, “a right-wing orthodox Jewish rabbi, who during his speech, disparaged gay marriage, transgender people and the fact that people use gender pronouns.” Menken is executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, a conservative organization of orthodox Rabbis that has strongly supported Trump.
There was no mention of Kwanza, nor was there any participation by Muslim clerics.
DOL employees reported being appalled at the spectacle.
Some criticized the prayer service as a violation of church and state:
The Freedom From Religion Foundation similarly wrote to Chavez-DeRemer to express their concerns about the services.
“While you are free to participate in religious events and promote your personal religious beliefs in your capacity as a citizen, you cannot use government resources or the Department of Labor to advance your personal religious beliefs,” wrote Christopher Lines, legal counsel for FFRF, in a Dec. 3 letter. “This is not only unconstitutional, but it also alienates the growing number of religiously unaffiliated citizens.”
Chavez DeRemer says she wants to make the prayer sessions monthly.
And on a personal note…
Two things.
First, Cabinet Secretaries and even agency heads (like the OSHA Assistant Secretary) have a certain demi-god aura in federal government. Career staff can get kind of giddy when they get to go to a meeting with an agency or Department head. When the Secretary (or Assistant Secretary’s) office needs something, everything else is dropped until his or her need is satisfied.
I learned this by experience when I became Acting Assistant Secretary at the the beginning of the Obama administration. I was curious about how things worked and full of ideas for how to change things. And my brain didn’t turn off at the end of the workday. So I’d send frequent emails at night or on the weekends to Office Directors and Regional Administrators with questions and new ideas about projects I wanted to look into.
Finally, one of the more seasoned members of the staff nicely asked me to stop the late night and weekend emails. Because even if I meant to look into something the next work-day or when you get around to it, a request from the (new) Acting Assistant Secretary sent everyone into a frenzy, no matter the time of day or night.
Plus, as an Agency or Department head you have access to stuff. And admiration. Agency heads private bathrooms and a car to drive them to meetings around town. The Secretary always travels with a two-car motorcade, armed guards, an entourage and gets to bypass security at the airport. Everyone is delighted to meet you and showers you with praise and gifts (mostly not allowed.) Everyone calls you Mr. or Madam Secretary. Unless you have a lot of humility and a strong sense of yourself, it can go to your head. You might start to believe you actually deserve all that.
A related problem is that staff is often very reluctant to tell the Secretary or Assistant Secretary that they’re wrong. Staff often feel that, no matter how crazy an idea or request from the head of the agency is, they need to get it done, by any means necessary. One of my biggest challenges when I got to OSHA was convincing the staff to tell me (nicely) that I was full of shit when I was full of shit. That was the only way to get good, honest advice from the career staff who have years or decades of valuable experience.
The second issue is the old saying: “the fish rots from the head down.”
And the opposite is also true.
When those at the top official in a Department (or the White House) emphasize ethics, that message trickles down. The Obama administration, from Day One, demanded strict ethical behavior from all of its political appointees. It was drilled into us directly from the White House. At DOL, we had bi-weekly two-hour Executive Staff meetings. And the last half hour of every meeting was ethics training: what kind of gifts you could accept and the polite way to give back the gifts you weren’t allowed to keep. What kind of meals you could accept. What events you were allowed to attend. What you were allowed to eat at events without paying. To what extent could you participate in political campaigns. What finances you had to disclose. And on and on. Neither ethical breaches nor even the appearance of ethical breaches would be tolerated. And no strip clubs on government trips.
If you were confused about all the rules (which everyone was), the department’s ethics attorneys were available 24/7 and on our speed dial. And we kept them busy.
Turning things upside down, when the message from the top is “grab whatever you can while the grabbing’s good,” and then you fire all the government watchdogs… everyone wants a piece of the pie, no matter how they get it, all the way down to the lowest political appointee. Ethics are cute for mere mortals, but not really relevant for masters of the universe like us. I mean, the taxpayers love us. We can do whatever we want because we were overwhelmingly elected. We can do no wrong.
Combine that message with the God-like aura you cast wherever you go and pretty soon you start believing that you actually deserve all that worshipful treatment…and stuff. You can get away with anything. You don’t have to follow the rules. You’re above all that. And no one dares to tell you you’re wrong.
We witnessed during Trump’s first term numerous Cabinet Secretaries and high officials who accepted tickets to sports events, used taxpayer money for private travel and were caught up in numerous conflicts of interest. Trump’s first HHS Secretary, Tom Price, had to resign after he was found to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money on private air travel for public business. His EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, was forced to resign over spending abuses, first-class travel and cozy relationships with lobbyists. His first Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, resigned in the midst of several investigations into his questionable conduct and business dealings while serving as Secretary. And on and on…
Compare that with zero resignations of Cabinet secretaries for ethical lapses during the Obama administration.
So what’s the lesson here?
If you’re ever appointed to high governmental office, be humble, be respectful of taxpayer dollars, be ethical and follow the law.
I know, all that seems like quaint relics from the good old days.
But even in Trump times, hubris may finally be catching up with Lori Chavez-deRemer.