Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon-turned Republican presidential candidate, is not interested in partaking in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, according to an ally of Carson.
Business manager and close friend Armstrong Williams told The Hill that he would serve as an unofficial adviser to Trump.
“Dr. Carson was never offered a specific position, but everything was open to him,” Williams told the website. “Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he’s never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency.”
Williams also told Circa that “his background didn’t prepare him to run a federal agency.” A separate source told the website that the conversation was over a position as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Later on Tuesday, Carson spoke with the Washington Post, saying: “The way I’m leaning is to work from the outside and not from the inside. I want to have the freedom to work on many issues and not be pigeonholed into one particular area.”
He added, “Having me as a federal bureaucrat would be like a fish out of water, quite frankly.”
Carson was an opponent of Trump in the early part of the Republican primaries, after which he endorsed Trump’s candidacy.
Trump, earlier this month, said that Carson “will be very much involved with my administration.”
