Trump angrily attacked Perdue as 'lazy' for losing his primary, report says — a criticism more often used of Trump himself
- Donald Trump lashed out at his defeated endorsees in Georgia, The Washington Post reported.
- He reportedly insulted David Perdue — who was seeking the governor nomination — as "lazy."
Former President Donald Trump was furious that his endorsed candidate David Perdue's lost the Republican gubernatorial primary in Georgia, and lashed out at him as "lazy," The Washington Post reported.
Trump's endorsement strategy has suffered setbacks in a series of primaries, most acutely in Georgia last week where two of his endorsed candidates slumped to defeat in their primaries.
Perdue was thrashed by incumbent Brian Kemp, getting 21% of the vote compared to Kemp's 73%. In the secretary of state race, incumbent Brad Raffensberger defeated the Trump-backed challenger, Jody Hice.
Advisors to Trump told the Post that the former president now sees the candidates he endorsed in the races as "embarrassments," adding that he considered Perdue lazy.
Trump staked a large amount of political capital on the races in Georgia, where he wanted revenge on Kemp and Raffensperger for their refusal to endorse his bogus claim that he lost the state to Joe Biden in 2020 because of fraud.
The former president campaigned for Perdue, who based his campaign around promoting Trump's election-fraud "Big Lie." Trump gave $2.64 million to Perdue's campaign from his own political warchest.
Perdue is a former US senator, and lost his seat in a closely fought runoff early in 2021 where some Republicans critics blamed Trump's fixation with pushing election fraud claims for driving down GOP turnout.
Trump himself faced accusations of laziness while in office. White House documents suggested he blocked out large sections of the day to watch coverage of himself on cable TV and would not bother reading briefings.
Trump also spent plenty of time off the clock playing golf, far exceeding the number of rounds he had repeatedly criticized Barack Obama for playing while president.
Trump over the weekend continued his attempts to reshape the GOP, holding a rally in Wyoming as part of his campaign to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney, a high-profile Republican critic who is sitting on the Jan 6 commission.