NASHVILLE (AP) — A legislative appointee of Republican Tennessee House speaker Glen Casada says public education is a "satanic system" and calls President Donald Trump and Pope Francis "anti-Christs."

WTVF-TV reports research analyst Scott Alan Buss said in a 2015 blog post that Christians who teach in public schools are "modeling a satanic approach to the pursuit of knowledge." Buss also said in an online video an education system built on that approach "cannot be repaired. ... It has to be torn down."

A 2016 post by Buss calls the president and the pope "wicked fools" and "anti-Christs."

House Democratic leader Mike Stewart says Buss' hiring "is extraordinarily disappointing, but unfortunately not surprising."

Casada announced last month he was stepping down after a vote of no-confidence following revelations he exchanged sexually explicit text messages about women with his former chief of staff.