Energy Secretary Rick Perry is
reportedly eyeing leaving the Trump administration in November.
According to several outlets, including
Politico,
Perry has been planning his departure for months.
On Friday, President Donald Trump
claimed that Perry, the former governor of Texas, was to blame for
his July phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
During the call, Trump asked Zelenskiy to do him a “favor” and
investigate corruption allegations against former Vice President Joe
Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
The call sparked an impeachment inquiry
in the House, which is controlled by Democrats.
A Perry spokesperson has said that
Perry “supported and encouraged” Trump to speak with Zelenskiy to
“discuss matters related to their energy security and economic
development.”
Perry, who twice lost the Republican
nomination for president, is a vocal opponent of LGBT rights.
In 2017, he endorsed Trump's decision
to ban transgender troops, saying that the United States should not
be responsible for “these types of operations to change your sex.”
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
then-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.