NBC News reported Monday that
President-elect Donald Trump has selected former Texas Governor Rick
Perry to head the Energy Department, which he once famously forgot
that he wanted to eliminate.
Perry, who twice lost the Republican
nomination for president, met with Trump, his former GOP rival, for
about 90 minutes in New York on Monday, NBC
reported.
In dropping out of the race, Perry
threw his support behind Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and criticized Trump
as a “barking carnival act.” As Trump's candidacy gained
momentum, Perry endorsed Trump, saying that he “should be our guy.”
During his first bid for president in
2012, Perry released an ad in Iowa in which he said that there was
something wrong with America when gay troops can serve openly in the
military but children cannot openly celebrate Christmas and accused
President Barack Obama of waging a war on religion.
The ad, titled Strong,
spawned dozens of parodies on the Internet and was lampooned by late
night television hosts, including Stephen
Colbert.
Perry has also compared being gay to
alcoholism, urged the Boys Scouts of America (BSA) to keep its former
ban on openly gay scouts, defended the military's now-defunct ban on
openly gay service members, and signed a presidential candidates
pledge vowing to oppose marriage equality.