Donald Trump met with ridicule when in August he claimed to be “the chosen one”, his apparently messianic self-confidence clashing with a press corps sceptical of the sincerity of his own religious beliefs as well as his behaviour and record in office. He subsequently said he’d been joking.

But his energy secretary, Rick Perry, thinks the president should take himself seriously.

“God’s used imperfect people all through history,” Perry told the Fox News host Ed Henry in a video clip widely shared on Monday. “King David wasn’t perfect, Saul wasn’t perfect, Solomon wasn’t perfect.

“And I actually gave the president a little one-pager” – a possible reference to the short and colourful briefing notes Trump is reported to prefer – “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, y’know, ‘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.’”

Discussing the interview on air, Henry said Perry “thinks at this moment and this time, Donald Trump was sent by God to do great things”.



Henry said Perry also “pointed out to me he believes Barack Obama was sent by God as well, for that moment and that time”.

The notion that Trump is a ruler of less-than-perfect Christian values sent to benefit the godly – a second King Cyrus, perhaps – is common on the religious right.

His own religious commitment seems questionable in the extreme but the thrice-married, porn star- and Playmate-paying, pussy-grabbing, customer-defrauding, disability-mocking, race-baiting, Nazi-sympathising, oft-bankrupt, impeachment-threatened president counts evangelical Christians as a key bloc of support.

Perry, a former governor of Texas and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination who like other senior Trump aides has found himself under the shadow of the impeachment inquiry, will step down as energy secretary in December.