Newly elected President Donald Trump said on Thursday he is choosing Former Georgia senator David Perdue will be ambassador to China.
Trump said in a social media post that Purdue, the former CEO, “brings valuable expertise to help build our relationship with China.”
Perdue advanced Trump's debunked lies about election fraud during his unsuccessful bid for Georgia governor. Perdue lost his Senate seat four years ago to Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff ran unsuccessfully In the primary against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
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Economic tensions will be a big part of the US-China picture for the new administration.
trump threatened to impose As part of his effort to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs, he imposed new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China as soon as he took office. He said he would, as one of his first executive orders, impose a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% tariff on goods coming from China.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington warned earlier this week that all sides would suffer losses if a trade war broke out.
“China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu posted on Twitter. “No one will win a trade war or a #tariff war.” He said China had taken steps last year to help stop drug trafficking.
It is unclear whether Trump will actually follow through on the threats or whether he is using them as a negotiating tactic.
tariff, if implementedThat could dramatically raise prices for American consumers on everything from gas to automobiles and agricultural products. According to the latest US Census data, the US is the largest importer of goods in the world, with Mexico, China and Canada its top three suppliers.
Trump added even more people to his immigration team on Thursday as he promised a massive crackdown on deportations and the border.
He said he was nominating former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott to head U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Scott, a career officer, was appointed to head the border agency in January 2020 and enthusiastically embraced then-President Trump's policies, particularly on construction of the US-Mexico border wall. The Biden administration forced them out.
Trump also said he would nominate Caleb Vitello to be acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that, among other things, arrests immigrants in the US illegally. Vitello is a career ICE officer who has spent more than 23 years at the agency and most recently was the assistant director of the Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs.
The president-elect nominated Border Patrol union chief Brandon Judd as ambassador to Chile. Judd has been a longtime supporter of Trump, appearing with him during his visits to the US-Mexico border, though he particularly supported the Senate. immigration bill That Trump, supported by President Biden, sank in part because he did not want to give the Democrats a victory on this issue in an election year.