In an interview with (where else?) FOX News, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, who is planning on resigning later this year, says that Donald Trump was “the chosen one” and “sent by God to do great things.”

It’s both exactly what you’d expect a white evangelical to say about any Republican president and another indication that God’s judgment is the absolute worst.

Fox & Friends preview an interview with Rick Perry, where he says that Trump is "the chosen one" and "sent by God to do great things" Pete Hegseth: "God has used imperfect people forever," but what Trump "has withstood is unlike what really any other mortal could understand" pic.twitter.com/ITDAErMJiN — Courtney Hagle (@CourtneyHagle) November 24, 2019

… God used imperfect people all through history. King David wasn’t perfect, Saul wasn’t perfect, Solomon wasn’t perfect. And I actually gave the president a little one-pager on those Old Testament kings about a month ago. And I shared it with him. I said, “Mr. President, I know there are people that say, you know, you were the chosen one. And… I said… you were! 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”…

That’s quite a shift from the Rick Perry who said in 2015 that “Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded.” (One time, Perry got something right. And then he realized his mistake and went in the other direction.)

Perry went on to say, we’re told, that President Obama was also chosen by God — See? It’s not just Republicans! — though good luck finding evidence of white evangelicals embracing that opinion in real time when Obama was in office.

“Imperfect” here is quite the understatement, too. The problem with Trump isn’t that he’s slightly short of perfection. It’s that he actively rejects basic competency. It says a lot about Perry’s own inability to judge Trump that he gave him a Bible-themed homework assignment and acted like Trump took it seriously. Then again this is the same guy who believes church/state separation is Satanic. So maybe his own theology needs work.

Perry is really doing us a favor. Every time right-wing Christians suggest Trump is part of God’s plan, it means Trump can drag religion down with everything else he touches. May Christianity go the way of Trump’s many businesses.

