Rick Perry is cutting and running
In the wake of the Mueller report, it seems that half the Trump administration is celebrating (or at least pretending to celebrate) the delusion that they’ve been exonerated, while the rest is either in a panic over what comes next or trying to get as far away as possible. Rick Perry falls into the latter category.
The Secretary of Energy who didn’t know what his job function was until the day he was sworn in, Perry is now reportedly leaving the Trump administration. Although his resignation hasn’t been confirmed, with one aide claiming that Perry is still undecided, reports of his departure have been circulating for weeks from his inner circle. He has also reportedly begun training his deputy secretary to take over.
Perry is said to be leaving without an exit strategy – but if he does in fact resign, it will tell us a few things about the state of the Trump administration. The news comes after Perry turned down an offer from Donald Trump to be the new Secretary of Homeland Security, which means that he managed to be on good terms with Trump throughout much of his tenure. We don’t have a reason to believe he’s been fired, particularly if this has been weeks in the making. This could suggest that he simply thinks the administration is on its last legs and things are no longer sustainable, but it could also mean that Perry and his allies have been successful in gutting the Department of Energy, and the longer he stays in the public eye, the uglier the fallout could be for him.
Rick Perry is clearly unqualified for both positions, so it’s probably best that he turned down Donald Trump’s offer. Back when Trump first launched his campaign for president, Perry referred to him as a cancer on conservatism, warning that he would doom the Republican Party if nominated. Now it seems he may be having to eat his words.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making