Tulsi Gabbard Exit Marks Fourth Woman to Leave Trump Cabinet

President Donald Trump’s second Cabinet was never exceptionally diverse from the start. And in the past three months, four 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. On April 20, embattled Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced her resignation. The latest to leave is Tulsi Gabbard, the nation’s chief intelligence official, who announced on Friday that she planned to resign to care for her husband, Abraham, who has been diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer.

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.

Gabbard is a military veteran who was staunchly anti-war during her time in Congress and vocally opposed Trump’s military actions in Iran during his first term. She faced intense scrutiny in recent appearances on Capitol Hill over the administration’s current war in Iran. 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. Gabbard also sparked concern for being present at an unprecedented FBI seizure of 2020 election ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, which took place five years after Trump’s unsuccessful efforts to overturn his election loss in the state.

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 four 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, 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.

The internal investigation into Chavez-DeRemer looked at 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 has taken over as acting head of the department.

The women remaining in Trump’s Cabinet are Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins; Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration.

While Trump’s Cabinet has been more stable than in his first term, the jobs of a number of other high-ranking officials have been rumored to be in trouble: 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.