Trump Chooses Ben Carson To Lead US Housing, Urban Policy

Ben Carson has been nominated as the next secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Trump transition team announced this Monday.

"I am thrilled to nominate Dr. Ben Carson as our next Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development," President-elect Donald Trump said in a statement. "Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities."

Carson seemed reluctant to join the Trump administration initially. "Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience; he's never run a federal agency," Armstrong Williams, Carson's business manager and confidant, told The Hill in an interview last month. "The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency."

Carson then disputed the comments made by Williams in a lengthy Facebook post.

"My decision not to seek a cabinet position in the Trump administration has nothing to do with the complexity of the job as is being reported by some news outlets," he wrote. "I believe it is vitally important for the Trump administration to have many outspoken friends and advisers who are outside of the Washington bubble. It is vital to have independent voices of reason and reconciliation if our nation is to heal and regain its greatness. I will continue to work with the transition team and beyond as we build a dynamite executive branch of government."

However, in a recent interview Carson said that he was prepared to take up the role, referring to his growing up "in the inner city" and his time as a physician in Baltimore that makes him suitable for the position.

"We cannot have a strong nation if we have weak inner cities," Carson told Fox News. "We have to get beyond the promises and start really doing something. The amount of corruption and graft and things, shell games that are played — we need to get rid of all that stuff."

Considering his views on handling poverty in the country (he expressed opposition to many programs devised to end poverty, saying that it is the responsibility of the people and not the government to "take care of the indigent in our society"), Carson will likely use the newly appointed position in limiting government's reach in this regard.