One week after he ended his presidential campaign, Dr. Ben Carson will be endorsing Donald Trump Friday as the real estate mogul looks to coalesce Republicans ahead of Tuesday’s primaries.
A source with confirmed to the Washington Examiner Carson’s planned endorsement, which gives Trump his highest level endorsement since the week before Super Tuesday when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gave him his support.
As first reported by the Washington Post, Carson will endorse Trump in a news conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., which Trump owns. Carson — who currently resides in the Sunshine State — reportedly met with Trump Thursday morning to nail down the potential endorsement.
Earlier Thursday, Carson hinted to Fox News Radio’s John Gibson that he would endorse Trump, saying that he was “certainly leaning” toward endorsing the GOP front-runner as the field narrows between him and Sen. Ted Cruz, who Carson feuded with after the Iowa caucuses
In the interview, the famed neurosurgeon argued that there are two versions of Trump — the one in public and the one “behind the scenes,” noting that the latter is one who can be “reasoned with very easily.” He added that Trump would be the one elected president.
“There are two Donald Trumps,” Carson told Gibson. “There’s the Donald Trump that you see on television and who gets out in front of big audiences, and there’s the Donald Trump behind the scenes. They’re not the same person.”
“One’s very much and entertainer, and one is actually a thinking individual,” Carson said. “That [second] one is someone you can reason with very easily and who is actually very comfortable talking about issues and recognizing that he doesn’t have all the answers. It’s a very different one — it’s a night and day difference.”
“If I said it sounded to me in this interview like you’re leaning toward Trump, would I be wrong?” Gibson asked, adding later on that “I’m ready to conclude that Ben Carson is on the Trump team.”
“Let’s put it this way, I’m certainly leaning,” Carson said.
