Trump taps David Perdue as U.S. ambassador to China

President-elect Donald Trump nominated former U.S. Sen. David Perdue as ambassador to China, putting a former Fortune 500 chief executive who has a long history of criticizing the Communist nation into the key diplomatic post.

“He will be instrumental in implementing my strategy to maintain Peace in the region, and a productive working relationship with China’s leaders,” Trump said in a post Thursday night on his Truth Social platform.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Perdue will be charged with leading the nation’s diplomatic efforts in China at a tense time. Trump has threatened to impose a 10% tariff on Chinese goods unless the nation’s leaders curb the smuggling of fentanyl into the U.S.

Perdue has a long track record of slamming China on the campaign trail, and has accused political opponents of harboring dark ties to the Communist nation. But he also has highlighted his business experience in Asia, which includes leading the Dollar General chain store’s aggressive expansion into China.

An ardent Trump loyalist, Perdue had withdrawn from public life after humbling back-to-back defeats to Democrat Jon Ossoff in a 2021 Senate runoff and then to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in a GOP primary bid he launched at Trump’s urging.

But he reemerged on the campaign trail this year as the former president made his comeback bid, telling voters at rallies his mission was “making damn sure that Donald J. Trump is the next president.”

“He’s doing his part. He’s done his part,” Perdue told Republicans at a campaign stop in Rome earlier this year. “There’s no mystery about who Donald Trump is. That’s what I get so upset about. You get what you pay for, just like Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan.”

Perdue is the third Georgia Republican who waged a losing campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2020 to earn a key position in Trump’s incoming administration.

Trump tapped former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler this week to run the Small Business Administration and earlier named former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, who ran against Loeffler in a special election, as the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Democrat Raphael Warnock captured Loeffler’s seat in a 2021 runoff.

Perdue’s appointment caps a long career in business and politics. He worked in Texas for clothing maker Haggar and went to Asia as a top executive with Sara Lee, later becoming the head of shoemaker Reebok. He also ran the Dollar General chain of family discount stores.

Urged by his first cousin, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, David Perdue entered a crowded 2014 race for the open U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Saxby Chambliss. (Sonny Perdue, now Georgia’s higher education chancellor, served as Trump’s Agriculture secretary during his first term.)

A self-described “political outsider,” David Perdue defeated a gaggle of U.S. House Republicans to win the GOP nomination for the seat, and then he bested Democrat Michelle Nunn, a family friend, to capture the office.

His signature jean jacket transformed his image from a longtime boardroom executive into an everyman, and he was one of the first Republicans in Georgia to align himself with Trump’s populist brand.

Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC

Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC

Running together in 2020, Trump, Perdue and Loeffler all went down in defeat. Rather than challenge Warnock in 2022 for a potential return to the Senate, Perdue heeded Trump’s call to run against Kemp.

The campaign ended in disastrous fashion after Perdue one-upped Trump’s election fraud conspiracy theories and egged on the former president’s supporters as they chanted “lock him up” about imprisoning Kemp.

By the end of the campaign, Trump had distanced himself from Perdue. Perdue quipped during his concession speech that the race was called early enough for his supporters to make their dinner reservations before he asked them to “face the reality” and back Kemp in the general election.

His campaigns also were marked by China-focused attacks. He falsely claimed Ossoff was endorsed by the Communist Party and responded to criticism of the GOP’s handling of the COVID virus by slamming his opponent for selling a documentary to a Hong Kong-based company with ties to China. Ossoff countered that Perdue had “demeaned himself” with the line of attack.

But Perdue also came under the microscope for his own connections to China. Beside his work at Dollar General expanding into China, he also used Hong Kong as a base while in a key role at Sara Lee to build an Asian operation from the “ground up.”

And during Perdue’s 2022 bid for governor, Kemp highlighted Perdue’s comments that he was “proud” of shifting manufacturing and jobs overseas in an ad that opened with footage of Trump promising to “bring jobs back from China.” It featured a split-second hashtag that dubbed Perdue “#BeijingDave.”

On the campaign trail this election season, Perdue repeatedly said he had no plans to run for office again. But he also indicated his recent appearances were no anomalies, and there was “more work to be done” in a second Trump administration.