- Donald Trump is giving up on Georgia GOP gubernatorial candidate David Perdue, per NBC.
- Trump, according to NBC's sources, has griped about how badly Perdue is doing in polls.
- The former president first backed Perdue in December, picking him over incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp.
Donald Trump plans to cut his losses and drop his support for David Perdue, the Georgia GOP gubernatorial candidate whom the former president previously endorsed but is now performing poorly in polls.
In an article published on Friday, NBC News cited four sources who said that Trump had been complaining about Perdue.
One source told NBC that Trump was not planning to visit Georgia to stump for Perdue due to his belief that Perdue is struggling and that his race against incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp is all but lost.
"David either has a bunch of geniuses working for him — because he's basically spent no money — or he's run the most flawed campaign in America," the anonymous source said, per the outlet.
NBC also reported how Perdue's campaign had been outspent in ads, citing data from political action committees. The outlet stated that Perdue's PAC had put out only around $280,000 worth of ads, while Kemp's PAC is on track to spend more than $1 million in campaign advertising.
Perdue has not been performing well ahead of the Georgia GOP primaries.
According to a survey done for Fox News published on Wednesday, Perdue is trailing far behind Fox — 60% of the respondents who voted early or cast absentee ballots surveyed between May 12 and 16 said they voted for Kemp, while 28% said they picked Perdue.
A representative for Perdue did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
According to Trump's past statements, the former president first began supporting Perdue on December 6, 2021.
"Great to see that David Perdue is running for Governor of Georgia. He is a Conservative fighter who isn't afraid of the Radical Left," Trump wrote in a statement released on Twitter via a spokesperson.
He added that Kemp, in his opinion, had "failed Georgia" and was a "very weak governor."
"David Perdue has my Complete and Total Endorsement. He will not let you down!" Trump wrote in his message.
Trump then mentioned Perdue on nine other occasions in his daily statements. However, Trump's last known mention of Perdue in official statements — as seen in the email blasts sent from his team — was on April 25.
In that statement, Trump called Kemp a "RINO" (short for "Republican In Name Only") while rallying "MAGA voters" to support Perdue. "It is not easy to beat an incumbent, however, if our voters turn out, David Perdue will win in a landslide," Trump wrote.
Trump's backing away from Perdue comes after some of his high-profile endorsements have flopped in their respective races, blemishing his self-proclaimed status as the Republican kingmaker.
Just two weeks ago, the former president bragged about the value of his "unparalleled" and "unblemished" endorsement record, saying GOP candidates who want to win should fear him.
This week, that claim was undermined when controversial freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn was ousted by his primary challenger, Chuck Edwards. Another Trump-backed candidate, Charles Herbster, lost his gubernatorial race in Nebraska last week amid allegations of sexual assault from eight women.
Trump has made 183 endorsements since leaving office, per Ballotpedia, many of which have yet to play out. While most of the Trump-endorsed political candidates have seen victory, many were also running in uncontested races.