You don’t need to drive 500 miles around Florida with Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling to know that he’s got what it takes to helm the sprawling Department of Labor (DOL). I happen, however, to have done just that — and saw firsthand why he is the best pick to run DOL.
From Tampa Bay to St. Petersburg to Boca Raton to Orlando, Sonderling visited ReliaQuest, where he spoke with employees about the Trump administration’s artificial intelligence agenda, City Furniture, where he pitched the Working Families Tax Cuts to a receptive audience, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Tampa Bay, where he took to the basketball court to talk with students about why healthy living is a slam dunk, and Alexander D. Henderson University School — a school of the future where kindergartners learn to do CT scans where he spoke about how to train tomorrow’s workforce with students, administrators, and trustees.
At each stop along the way, I interviewed Sonderling about something site-specific — cybersecurity, apprenticeships, partnerships across the Trump administration, and more. With good staff work — which Sonderling has in spades — anyone could knock those out of the park.
Where Sonderling stood out was in our final interview, at a housing development in Orlando. Following a tour of the development, in which he bombarded the hosts with questions about regulations, he and I sat for another interview.
While Sonderling was already confirmed by the Senate to serve as the Deputy Secretary of Labor, many on and off the Hill still understandably have questions about what his priorities are, since he wasn’t supposed to find himself in this new role.
At one point during the interview, I made the mistake of asking him if a certain Biden-era regulation — the Heat Injury and Illness Prevention and Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings Rule — was “on his radar.”
“Everything is on my radar,” he interjected. And he wasn’t kidding. Sonderling covered everything from that Heat rule — a priority for Chair Bill Cassidy (R., La.) — to 14(c) sheltered workshops — a priority for lawmakers like Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) — to DOL’s work to counter human trafficking — a priorities for Chairmen Tim Walberg (R., Mich.) and John Moolenaar (R., Mich.) — in one setting.
Sonderling’s attentiveness to the priorities of so many in Congress would be a major asset in any potential confirmation hearing down the road. While no one on the Hill wants to get ahead of President Donald Trump — which is understandable — the praise for Sonderling from many of the top lawmakers he’d need on his side was evident.
“Sonderling is amazing,” one Hill chief texted me when he saw that I was traversing across Florida — and “traversing” is, if anything, an understatement.
Sonderling is the youngest member of Trump’s cabinet other than Vice President JD Vance, and he’s got the energy to show it. The only thing that his trip schedule didn’t build time in for was meals — of any kind.
At one point, we stopped at a gas station, and he recommended that I get an energy drink that subsequently made me see black blotches because it was so strong. For him, one of those is simply called breakfast.
But that’s the type of youth and energy that Trump wants and needs from his cabinet, which is historically young.
President Donald Trump recently announced that he wants Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to assume the role full-time, pending confirmation by the Senate. That is wise, but it’s not the only elevation that he should consider.
To paraphrase Justin Timberlake in The Social Network, “drop the ‘Acting’ in ‘Acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling.’ It’s cleaner.”
Matthew Foldi is a co-founder and the editor-in-chief of the Washington Reporter.
