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Ben Carson, who served as Secretary of Housing in the first Trump administration “is a favorite to return to the role if he wants it,” Politico reports, citing “people familiar with the transition.”
Editor’s note: On Friday night, president-elect Donald Trump announced the nominations of former Texas state representative Scott Turner as Secretary of Housing and hedge fund executive Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary. Turner is the chair of the center for education opportunity at the America First Policy Institute.
Carson posted on X on Sunday that he is meeting with the president-elect in the near future, and is “excited to speak with President Trump about how I will continue to advance the America First agenda.”
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A former neurosurgeon, Carson also shot down reports that he might serve as the Surgeon General in Trump’s second term.
I am excited to speak with President Trump about how I will continue to advance the America First agenda, and I am meeting with him in the near future.
However, contrary to reports, I will not be serving as the Surgeon General.
— Ben & Candy Carson (@RealBenCarson) November 17, 2024
Carson was interested in heading the Department of Health and Human Services, The New York Post reported shortly after the election, but Trump has promised that role to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Carson wrote a chapter of Project 2025 outlining how conservatives envisioned remaking the Department of Housing and Urban Development, calling for a “reset” of HUD, “to include a broad reversal of the Biden Administration’s persistent implementation of corrosive progressive ideologies across the department’s programs.”
Carson’s chapter of Project 2025 calls for raising FHA mortgage insurance premiums, putting an end to HUD’s efforts to address appraisal bias and climate change issues, and eliminating the Housing Supply Fund, which provides grants to state and local governments to build more affordable housing.
Housing industry and lending groups have advocated that HUD lower FHA premiums and eliminate “life of loan” premium payments after borrowers have built up a 20 percent equity stake in their homes.
In the long term, Carson’s chapter of Project 2025 urges Congress to consider “a wholesale overhaul of HUD that contemplates devolving many HUD functions to states and localities with any remaining federal functions consolidated to other federal agencies.”
Another chapter of Project 2025 that was not written by Carson advocates that the Treasury Department wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “in an orderly manner” and privatize the companies, which have been in government conservatorship since 2008.
Project 2025 is a 922-page policy document put together by the Heritage Foundation and an advisory board of more than 100 conservative organizations detailing policy positions they hoped Trump would embrace.
Trump disavowed Project 2025 on the campaign trail, calling some of its proposals “abysmal,” but has nominated several of its authors to his Cabinet or for key leadership positions.
Those nominations include Brendan Carr as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, John Ratcliffe as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Tom Homan as “border czar,” which is not a formal Cabinet position, ABC News reports.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to note that former Texas state representative Scott Turner has been nominated to be the next Secretary of Housing, and hedge fund executive Scott Bessent has been nominated as Treasury Secretary.
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