Carson: ‘I don’t want to talk about Trump’

In an interview with the Fox Business Network Monday, Carson dismissed his GOP rival, telling host Neil Cavuto that he doesn’t want to discuss him. He also added that his solutions to issues come about thanks to “logic” and “evidence.”

The former neurosurgeon initially responded to comments made by Trump last week, saying he would support allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin into Syria to fight the Islamic State, even though their main reasoning seems to be propping up the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“I do not want to allow Vladimir Putin to expand his influence,” said Carson, who sits third in the Washington Examiner‘s latest power rankings. “That’s been his goal for quite some time now. He was very disappointed with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and with its tremendous influence worldwide. We cannot contribute to his ability to regain that.”

However, when asked by Cavuto if he thought the real estate mogul was being naive in his assessment of the situation, Carson made it known he didn’t want to discuss his 2016 counterpart.

“I don’t want to talk about Trump. I want to tell you what I believe,” Carson told the host. “We need to have a global strategy, and it needs not only be in Syria. We need to be talking about the Baltic basin. We need to be talking about all of Eastern Europe. We need to be challenging him there. We need to have more than one armored brigade – more than two armored brigades. We need to have a missile defense system reestablished, which he was horrified when it was there before. Let’s get down his face a little more.”

“He’s welcome to have that belief. I believe as the American people have more opportunity to see and hear me and hear my solutions — which are based in logic and in evidence, that they will make the correct decision.”

While Trump continues to top the GOP field, Carson is ranked second nationally and in Iowa, according to the latest RealClearPolitics averages.