Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson will likely end his service with Trump's cabinet after the president's first term.
Carson shared his plans in an interview with Newsmax TV on Monday.
“I will certainly finish out this term," the secretary told host John Gizzi. "I would be interested in returning to the private sector because I think you have just as much influence, maybe more, there."
Carson is one of the president's longest-serving secretaries and has notably mostly kept himself removed from the scandals that plagued other cabinet officials like Ryan Zinke, former secretary of the interior, and Scott Pruitt, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Carson has, however, faced some controversies since taking office. He was criticized for claiming poverty is a "state of mind" and questioned after his office spent $31,000 on furniture. These missteps ultimately led him to admit running a federal department is more difficult than brain surgery.
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Despite distancing himself from Trump while on Newsmax, Carson made it clear he maintains his allegiance to Trump in a follow-up statement, The Washington Post reports.
“President Donald J. Trump hired me to do a job as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and we are making tremendous progress ensuring our most vulnerable citizens are empowered with a path to self-sufficiency,” the statement reads. “I always stand ready to serve this great president and the United States of America."
Carson also commented on the recent Michael Cohen hearing, during which Trump's former fixer accused the president of being racist.
"I think Cohen is trying to ingratiate himself to the people who hate Trump," Carson said. "I've never seen anything that even remotely would remind me of racists, and believe me, I recognize a racist when I see them."
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