Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson is under active consideration to be the next secretary of Housing and Urban Development, President-elect Trump said Tuesday.
“I am seriously considering Dr. Ben Carson as the head of HUD. I’ve gotten to know him well — he’s a greatly talented person who loves people,” Trump tweeted Tuesday afternoon.
I am seriously considering Dr. Ben Carson as the head of HUD. I’ve gotten to know him well–he’s a greatly talented person who loves people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
Trump met with Carson at Trump Tower on Tuesday, presumably to discuss the Cabinet-level position. Carson had previously been floated as a possible Secretary of Education or Health and Human Services.
“The president-elect offered him anything he wanted to do,” Carson spokesman Armstrong Williams told reporters last week. “But in the end he didn’t want anything.
“[Carson’s] background didn’t prepare him to run a federal agency,” Williams added last week.
However, Carson told Fox News on Sunday that while his “preference is to be outside and to act as an adviser,” he would give “very serious consideration” to a Cabinet role if Trump believes that is the best position in which Carson can serve Americans.
“It’s just not my preference,” he noted.
Reached Tuesday by phone, Williams declined to comment about Carson’s interest in the HUD position.
