Like eccentric guests in an Agatha Christie novel, members of Donald Trump’s Cabinet are disappearing in fast succession. The latest to be forced out: Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
The New York Times reported, “The Labor Department’s inspector general’s office is nearing the end of a monthslong investigation into a whistle-blower’s allegations of professional misconduct by Ms. Chavez-DeRemer and her closest aides, including claims that she was having an affair with a member of her security team and that she used department resources for personal trips.” (Several other aides have been forced out based on the same complaint.) The report added that Chavez-DeRemer’s departure came just days before she was scheduled to sit for an interview. Her husband has also been ensnared in sexual harassment allegations.
Following Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi, she is the third Cabinet secretary — and third woman — to get dumped. The question is not whether these officials should have been fired; all had serious, multiple allegations pending. (And Democrats certainly pushed for Noem and Bondi to go.) The more interesting issue is why the women are the only ones to get booted from a merit-free administration filled with unfit, unqualified, dishonest, and scandal-plagued characters.
If removing embarrassing and disreputable characters were the object, there is no reason Pete Hegseth (mired in Signalgate, accused of denying women and minorities promotions, engaged in extrajudicial killings and arguably other war crimes, Christianizing the Pentagon, etc.) should still be there.
Kash Patel, who recently sued The Atlantic over a deeply sourced report alleging that he is a drunk, has been plagued by a slew of scandals (e.g., using funds to fly his girlfriend around, misleading Congress about firing FBI agents who investigated Jan. 6, speaking out of turn/spreading inaccurate information in the aftermath of shootings) and widespread complaints of utter incompetence (including gutting the FBI’s counterintelligence staff).
Then there is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. a crank who has systematically undermined our public health system; spread disinformation about vaccines, vitamin A, and autism; fired qualified scientists who refused to adopt his anti-science policies; and slashed grants and critical research.
Run through the list: from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (a buffoon who misrepresented his contact with Jeffrey Epstein) to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (who spreads chaos, appears oblivious to conflicts of interest, and presides over a meltdown in our airline system) to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (the most gaffe-ridden and least credible Treasury secretary in memory, who spends time acting as Trump’s attack dog). None of these people would have been nominated or confirmed for their positions in any other administration. A stable, competent president would have fired them multiple times over.
And yet, the men plod along, shuffling in oversized shoes and groveling in front of their boss. (One benefit the male Cabinet members have: Social and sporting event opportunities to suck up to him. Secretary of State Marco Rubio knew enough to hang out with Trump at a UFC event rather than negotiate with Iran.)
Plainly, a double standard is at work, heavily influenced by the toxic misogyny coursing through the veins of the MAGA movement and deeply embedded in Trump’s psyche. There is less tolerance for Chavez-DeRemer’s petty scandals than for Hegseth’s blunders that endanger our national security. Mike Walz got a different job after Signalgate; Bondi got shown the door. As Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Tex.) observed after Bondi was canned, “Well … first it was Kristi Noem, now it’s Pam Bondi … it would be too much like right that Pete be next. I see a theme. He will throw the incompetent women under the bus a lot faster than the incompetent men.”
Now, before we shed a tear for these women, remember that “Bondi, Noem, and the other women in Trumpworld knew exactly what they were getting themselves into,” as Jill Filipovic wrote. “It is not a secret that this president has asked his attorneys general and other high-ranking officials to break the law and defy the Constitution; it is not a secret that he is quick to anger, and who he fires and retains is often scattershot.” One is hard pressed to disagree with Filipovic’s conclusion that they are “villains of their own making,” unworthy of our sympathy.
That said, it is not as if his venom toward women is a new phenomenon. Trump gets especially enraged with women (reporters, members of Congress, presidential opponents) who displease him. Invectives against women fly from his lips, especially when he is facing criticism. The man credibly accused of multiple instances of sexual harassment and found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll infamously stated, “when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” Women are objects whose disobedience and independence are an affront to him.
When women commit the cardinal sin of performing poorly on TV (as Bondi and Noem did), they put a target on their backs. (Hegseth might have been onto something in refusing to testify about the war.) Trump, who is fixated with women’s appearance and considers TV the true training ground for high office, expects these women to get rid of his messes. When they don’t, they are useless to him.
In short, none of these women “deserve” the jobs they held. Once there, they did not serve the American people. However, we would be blind not to recognize that Trump’s tolerance for women who mess up is much lower than for men. (Note that he is also allegedly contemplating canning Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.) “Under Trump, women will always have a ceiling they will hit before being discarded; the only power they have presumably acquired has been conditionally given and therefore can be taken away,” wrote Andrea González-Ramírez. “But that is the deal you make when you are willing to be a public shield for a man who rarely, if ever, sees women as fully human.”
We have always known that. Apparently, it is only now dawning on the Cabinet women who thought they were different.
Message to all women who went to work for, or even voted for that that disgusting sack of demented shit. He was the one who was recorded saying "when you're famous, you just grab 'em by the pussy, they let you do that."
Don't say you weren't warned.
And when will the scales fall from the eyes of those MAGA cult women like my sister-in-law who think Trump is some sort of deity?