Today, former brain surgeon and Trump’s Housing and Urban Development secretary Ben Carson said in an interview with Newsmax TV that he will “likely” not return to the administration for a second term.
“I will certainly finish out this term,” Carson said. “I would be interested in returning to the private sector because I think you have just as much influence, maybe more, there.”
Carson has had a wild ride since emerging in 2016 as a presidential candidate with no political experiences and bizarre beliefs about the pyramids. After bowing out of the GOP primary, in 2017, he was appointed HUD secretary by Trump.
During his time in office, Carson has done about what you would expect from a Trump official. He’s promoted conservative policies, including rolling back Obama-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulations, which the HUD under Carson called “ineffective, highly prescriptive, and effectively discourag[ing] the production of affordable housing.” He said in 2018 that he intended to triple the cost of living in public housing. Meanwhile, that same public housing is infested with rats, covered in mold, and falling apart.
There’s no word from HUD yet on whether Carson has officially announced his 2020 departure, or if he’s just spitballing, according to The Hill. But it makes sense he’d rather return to his career as a bestselling author rather than deal with the ever-worsening clusterfuck of the Trump White House.