President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he chooses former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia will be named ambassador to China.
Trump said in a social media post that Perdue, a former CEO, “brings valuable expertise to help us build our relationship with China.”
Perdue pushed Trump’s debunked lies about election fraud during his failed bid for Georgia governor. Perdue lost his Senate seat to Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff four years ago and ran unsuccessfully in a primary against Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.
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Economic tensions will play a significant role in the U.S.-China relationship for the new administration.
Asset threatened to impose imposing new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China upon taking office, as part of his efforts to combat illegal immigration and drugs. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico, as well as an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, as one of his first decrees.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington warned earlier this week that there would be losers on all sides in the event of a trade war.
“Economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States is mutually beneficial in nature,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said on X. “No one will win a trade war or a tariff war” . He added that China had taken steps last year to help stem drug trafficking.
It’s unclear whether Trump will actually follow through on his threats or use them as a negotiating tactic.
The prices, if implementedcould significantly raise prices for American consumers on everything from gasoline to automobiles 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 most recent U.S. census data.
Trump also beefed up his immigration team on Thursday, promising mass expulsions and border crackdowns.
He announced he was nominating former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott to head U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Scott, a career civil servant, was named head of the border agency in January 2020 and enthusiastically embraced then-President Trump’s policies, particularly regarding the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico. He was expelled by the Biden administration.
Trump also announced that he would nominate Caleb Vitello as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that, among other things, illegally arrests migrants in the United States. Vitello is a career ICE official with more than 23 years of experience with the agency and most recently served as deputy director of the Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs.
The president-elect named Border Patrol union head Brandon Judd as ambassador to Chile. Judd is a longtime supporter of Trump, appearing with him on his visits to the US-Mexico border, although he has notably supported a Senate immigration bill According to President Biden, Trump foundered in part because he did not want to give Democrats an electoral victory on this issue.
