Perry says Trump is God’s ‘chosen one’

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Energy Rick Perry believes that President Donald Trump was chosen by God to lead the country — and he handed the president a one-page description of morally flawed biblical kings as inspiration, he said.

“God’s used imperfect people all through history. King David

wasn’t perfect. Saul wasn’t perfect. Solomon wasn’t perfect,” Perry said in an interview on Fox News.

Trump himself caused a stir in August when he described himself in seemingly messianic terms: In one day, he looked to the sky while calling himself “the chosen one” to handle trade policy, and quoted the words of a conspiracy theorist radio host who likened Trump to “the King of Israel” and “the second coming of God.”

Perry said he told the president that this posturing, which some critics took as egotistical or even blasphemous, was correct.

“‘Mr. President … you said you were the chosen one,’ ” Perry recalled saying in the Oval Office. “I said, ‘You were … You are here in this time because God ordained you.’”

He noted that he believes Barack Obama was also ordained by God for the presidency.

It’s a common view among some evangelical Christians. Some of Trump’s loudest evangelical defenders, like Franklin Graham, often compare him to sinful but important biblical kings, especially King David — who wrote the beautiful Psalms and slayed Goliath, but also impregnated Bathsheba and then calculated to have her husband killed.