Departing Secretary of Energy Rick Perry praised President Donald Trump to the heavens on Sunday.
In an interview clip shown on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Perry told Ed Henry that the president was “the chosen one” sent by God to rule over America. The former Texas governor and Republican presidential rival of Trump used Old Testament kings to make his point.
“God’s used imperfect people all through history,” Perry said. “King David wasn’t perfect, Saul wasn’t perfect, Solomon wasn’t perfect.”
Perry said he shared his thoughts with Trump on paper recently. “I said, Mr. President, I know there are people that say you said you were the chosen one and I said, ‘You were.’ I said, ‘If you’re a believing Christian, you understand God’s plan for the people who rule and judge over us on this planet and our government.’ ”
Henry noted that Perry said he believed that former President Barack Obama was also sent by God.
Republican strategist and political commentator Ana Navarro-Cardenas said Perry’s comment about Trump proved that the president’s base is a cult.
Perry, a key figure in the Ukraine pressure campaign that led to the impeachment inquiry against the president, is not the first Trump acolyte to attribute the president’s ascent to religion.
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said earlier this year that “only God could deliver such a savior to our nation.” Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said God “wanted Trump to become president.” And Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, also a pivotal figure in the Ukraine plot, said in March that “it’s possible” that Trump, as an interviewer suggested, had been sent “to help save the Jewish people.”