There’s good news for Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, even this week, as the Office of the Inspector General investigation into an alleged inappropriate relationship with an underling revealed that her husband, Shawn DeRemer, has been banned from the Labor Department building after multiple sexual harassment allegations.
Hers is not the worst Republican sex scandal of the week.
No, Chavez-DeRemer has to take the back seat to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose supposed mistress — his former staffer Regina Santos-Aviles — died by self-immolation last September.
Santos-Aviles’s widower, Adrian Aviles, has since released text messages in which Gonzales, married with six children, repeatedly solicited explicit photos from Santos-Aviles, explaining, “I’m just such a visual person.” Adrian says the affair and the subsequent ostracism Santos-Aviles suffered from her colleagues drove her to suicide. Gonzales has denied the affair.
Welcome to President Donald Trump’s party and the sexually liberated GOP.
To be sure, the various accusations of sexual impropriety haven’t been proven. Also, this isn’t brand new: Politicians and Cabinet secretaries of both parties have had sex scandals since Alexander Hamilton. But it’s different in the Trump era.
From the thrice-married president on down, this administration is extraordinary in its quantity of licentiousness and infidelity.
Yes, there are plenty of conservative, church-going, scandal-free, once-married family men and women in Trump’s inner circle, such as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. But there are also 12 divorces, two separations, and more than 40 alleged affairs among the top 25 officials in this administration.
The lion’s share of those affairs belongs to Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., brought into government to Make America Healthy Again.
Needless to say, Kennedy’s lifestyle has not been healthy.
Court documents and a diary made public during civil litigation reportedly catalogued affairs with dozens of women during his three marriages. Most famous was a digital tryst with journalist Olivia Nuzzi, who had profiled Kennedy during his 2024 presidential campaign. For this impropriety, Nuzzi lost her job. Her former fiancé, Ryan Lizza, claims that Nuzzi described Kennedy as a “70-year-old ‘sex addict’ who told her he wanted to ‘possess,’ ‘control,’ and ‘impregnate’ her.”
This is, sadly, what we expect of a Kennedy. Republicans of old would argue that Kennedy’s personal life disqualified him from a position of high public trust.
First, Kennedy has obviously proven himself untrustworthy. Kennedy has deceived and cheated the people closest to him — his wives — on the most important matters. He hasn’t merely sinned on occasion. He has been unfaithful as a practice. This isn’t the distant past. The Nuzzi affair happened in 2024.
Second, Republicans, by celebrating and promoting an open and known serial philanderer, send the message that this sort of behavior is acceptable. Again, it matters that Kennedy is not merely a man who has sinned — we all are. This is how he lives his life.
But it doesn’t begin or end with Kennedy.
In late February, the New York Times reported that Shawn DeRemer, the husband of the labor secretary, had been banned from the Department of Labor building because three female staffers say he touched them inappropriately. One incident, on Dec. 18, 2025, was captured on security cameras and referred to D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, whose sexual assault unit opened a criminal investigation but declined to press charges.
What sort of groper would go to his wife’s workplace to grope her colleagues, you might ask. First, it’s important to note that DeRemer denies the accusations; they haven’t been proved, and the police never pressed charges. Second, it’s also possibly relevant that Chavez-DeRemer herself is being investigated on suspicion of carrying on an inappropriate romantic relationship with a member of her own security detail.
This scandal comes to light at the same time rumors have hit the major media hinting that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, married for 34 years, was carrying on an affair with her aide, Corey Lewandowski, a married father of four.
Noem and Lewandowski have traveled the world together in a leased jet — earmarked for “high-profile deportations” — that features a private cabin in the back.
It was reported last year that the two have rented D.C. apartments across the street from each other.
And it’s old news, but Secretary of War Pete Hegseth admitted to multiple affairs while married to his first wife, then while married to his second wife, he impregnated the woman who would become his third wife.
That’s quite the Cabinet Trump has assembled.
Conservative opponents of Trump warned of exactly this as Republicans embraced him in 2016. While it is possible to like a man’s job performance while disapproving of his personal life, there’s always the risk that the distinction will be eroded, and supporting the policies becomes supporting the man.
With Trump, this danger was much more obvious because the president demands personal loyalty and doesn’t tolerate any criticism. He has thus turned the Republican Party into something of a cult of personality. When that personality is a serial philanderer who bragged about grabbing women by the private parts, it’s pretty hard for his followers to maintain strict moral standards.
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The liberal media used to criticize Republicans for rejecting the sexual revolution. Well, no more. Trump’s party is fully liberated from any old-fashioned ideas such as fidelity or monogamy.
We’ll see where this leads.
