Trump taps former Sen. David Perdue as next ambassador to China
President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he is choosing Former Georgia Senator David Perdue will serve as ambassador to China.
Trump said in a social media post that former CEO Perdue “brings valuable expertise to help build our relationship with China.”
Perdue pushed Trump’s lies about election fraud during Trump’s unsuccessful campaign for governor of Georgia. Perdue lost his Senate seat to Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff four years ago. Run failed Against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in the primary.
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Economic tensions will be an important part of the new administration’s relationship with the United States.
trump card has threatened to impose Upon taking office, he imposed new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China as part of an effort to combat illegal immigration and drugs. He said he would impose a 25% tariff on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on goods from China, one of his first executive orders.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington warned earlier this week that if a trade war broke out, all parties would lose.
“China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation is essentially mutually beneficial and win-win,” Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a post on .
It’s unclear whether Trump will actually carry out these threats or if he is using them as a negotiating tactic.
tariff, If implementedcould significantly raise prices for U.S. consumers on everything from natural gas to cars to agricultural products. The United States is the world’s largest importer of goods, with Mexico, China and Canada its top three suppliers, according to the latest U.S. census data.
Trump also beefed up his immigration team on Thursday and promised mass deportations and border crackdowns.
He said he would nominate former Border Patrol Captain Rodney Scott to serve as director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Scott, a career official who was appointed to head the border agency in January 2020, enthusiastically supported then-President Trump’s policies, particularly the construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall. He was forced out by the Biden administration.
Trump also said he would nominate Caleb Vitello to serve as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency tasked with arresting illegal immigrants in the United States. Vitello is a career ICE officer who has worked at the agency for more than 23 years, most recently as assistant director of the Office of Firearms and Tactics Programs.
The president-elect appoints Brandon Judd, president of the Border Patrol Alliance, as ambassador to Chile. Judd has been a long-time supporter of Trump, appearing with him during his visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, though he specifically supports the Senate immigration bill Trump, backed by President Joe Biden, lost in part because he didn’t want to give Democrats an election-year victory on the issue.
