[3] In September 2021, Ted McKinney was named chief executive officer of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

[5] At his confirmation hearing, McKinney said he anticipated "investing significant time in many foreign countries...building trust, opening doors for farmers and processors, removing trade barriers, and otherwise being what I hope to be known as: a high-trust and high-delivery person of our ag portfolio."

Secretary Sonny Perdue said McKinney would "wake up every morning seeking to sell more American agricultural products in foreign markets.

[8][9] In September 2019, during a speech to the National Farmers Union, when talking about Trump's trade war with China, McKinney called Chinese leader Xi Jinping a "communist zealot" and "very much in the spirit of Mao Zedong".

McKinney also criticized Chinese government's crackdown on church attendance, quoting the report by the diplomatic representatives of the Department's Foreign Agricultural Service in China.