Anti-trans Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner has stirred up ire for saying God anointed Donald Trump to lead the nation.

At a meeting of the White House Religious Liberty Commission, Turner led a prayer focused on thanking God for Trump.

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“Father, we thank you for our president, Donald J. Trump, Father God, whom you have anointed and appointed for this time, for such a time as this. Lord, thank you that the president prioritizes prayer, Father god that he sees the power, the importance, the priority of praying together as a people, as a country, as a nation.”

“Father God, we lift up our president,” Turner said.

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The meeting took place at the Museum of the Bible and centered on dismantling the separation of church and state, with claims that religious students are villainized by it. Trump spoke at the gathering and said, “To have a great nation, you have to have religion. I believe that so strongly.”

The group Republicans against Trump slammed Turner’s prayer. “It’s a cult,” they wrote on social media.

One writer mocked the idea that Trump is religious. “Interesting that the Father would anoint someone who abuses woman, lies with nearly every word, and is fond of bullying people of color. Must have been a slow day for anointing. Oh, and the Antichrist prioritizes prayer? Well, that’s news!”

Author Jennifer Erin Valent called the prayer a “brash taking of the Lord’s name in vain” that made her “physically ill.” Valent also referred to Trump as “a man with an unrepentantly blackened soul.”