Republican presidential hopefuls Ben Carson and Donald Trump participate in the Republican Presidential Debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA, on Sept. 16, 2015.
Ben Carson hinted Wednesday, November 23, that he may actually be considering joining Donald Trump’s presidential cabinet, just one week after bowing out because of a lack of experience.
In a post to Facebook Wednesday, Carson, 65, wrote that “an announcement is forthcoming about my role in helping to make America great again.”
“We must bring back the compassion and the unity that empowers us and bands the divisiveness that weakens us,” the retired neurosurgeon wrote. “After serious discussions with the Trump transition team, I feel that I can make a significant contribution particularly to making our inner cities great for everyone. We have much work to do in strengthening every aspect of our nation and ensuring that both our physical infrastructure and our spiritual infrastructure is solid.”
One day earlier, President-elect Trump said he was still considering a role for Carson in his new administration.
“I am seriously considering Dr. Ben Carson as the head of HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development),” the real estate mogul tweeted Tuesday. “I’ve gotten to know him well — he’s a greatly talented person who loves people!”
The reversal comes after Carson’s business manager told The Hill on November 15 that the doctor didn’t feel experienced enough to take a high office. “Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience; he’s never run a federal agency,” close friend Armstrong Williams told The Hill. “The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency.”
Dr. Ben Carson, center, waits for the the third debate between Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at UNLV in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016.
However, Carson, who previously ran against Trump in the Republican presidential primaries, last week told The Washington Post that he felt he could be more effective outside the administration.
“The way I’m leaning is to work from the outside and not from the inside,” he told the paper on Tuesday, November 15. “I want to have the freedom to work on many issues and not be pigeonholed into one particular area.”
Additionally, he added, “Having me as a federal bureaucrat would be like a fish out of water, quite frankly. … I was offered things, there’s no question about that. I don’t want to go into the details.”
Carson has not held public office before nor does he have any background in housing policy, urban development or managing a large organization. In a recent interview with Fox, however, the former presidential hopeful said he did have some slight qualifications.
“I know that I grew up in the inner city,” he said. “And have spent a lot of time there. And have dealt with a lot of patients from that area.”
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