If there is anybody in the Trump Administration, past or present, who disappoints me above everybody else it would be Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Even more so than former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Perry's comment that Trump was "sent by God" to be President is neither shocking nor surprising. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders have made similar comments. But it is utterly dismaying given Perry's warnings about Trump during his all too brief presidential bid in 2015.
The former Texas Governor is perhaps best remembered for calling Trump "a cancer on conservatism" which he added "must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded.” Conservatives have not only been unwilling to make a diagnosis, but have let the cancer spread.
But Perry also described Trump as "a false prophet" and lambasted him when he declared he could not recall an occasion when he sought forgiveness from God. Perry said, “A man too arrogant, too self-absorbed, to seek God’s forgiveness is precisely the type of leader John Adams prayed would never occupy the White House.” Well, John Adams worst nightmare has been realized. Trump hasn't sought forgiveness from God or anyone else and no one within his inner circle would dare tell him such a thing least of all Rick Perry who received his 30 pieces of silver long, long ago.
That Perry also said that Barack Obama was ordained by God to be President doesn't mitigate his hypocrisy in the least. This is a man who after all referred to Obama as President Zero during his first White House bid in 2011. While Perry might have had legitimate policy differences with Obama he certainly never characterized him as man sent by God when he held the highest office in the land. The generosity Perry has for Obama now didn't exist when he wanted his job.
Of course, it could be the case that Perry will say anything depending on what his needs are at the moment. He isn't the first politician to do such a thing and he is far from the last. If that is the case then it only reinforces the well worn skepticism the public has of elected officials. Still, to go from describing someone as "a false prophet" to a man "sent by God to do great things" is a stretch beyond all elasticity.
Most disturbing of all is that the Rick Perry of 2015 was absolutely right about Donald Trump. The fact that Perry and so many other Republicans could be so easily purchased demonstrates not only a lack of principles and values but a complete and utter lack of faith.
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