Ben Carson Wants To Work From The "Outside"

At some point in 2016, some people thought that Ben Carson — or, at the very least, Ben Carson himself — believed that he would now be president-elect and prepping to assume the White House. That obviously didn't happen. Carson officially dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination in March, and since then has made a few appearances stumping for Donald Trump. With his vanity race and duties as a Trump shill done, what will Ben Carson do now?

It's been rumored that Carson has been in consideration for several positions in Trump's cabinet, including the secretary of health and human services. That seems strange for a few reasons, including the fact that Trump once suggested that Carson could be "pathological." But Carson, for his part, wasn't entirely enthusiastic about his endorsement of Trump when he ended his own race for the White House.

Speaking to conservative news site NewsMax, Carson indicated that though he would've liked to have endorsed another candidate, Trump promised him a position in his administration, at least in an advisory role. So Carson should be pretty thrilled that his gamble in supporting the Republican candidate paid off, right? Well, not really. Carson said last week that he would not accept any invitations to be in Trump's cabinet.

“The way I’m leaning is to work from the outside and not from the inside,” Carson told the Washington Post. “I want to have the freedom to work on many issues and not be pigeonholed into one particular area.” Carson continued:

I’ve said that if it came to a point where he absolutely needs me, I’d reconsider. But I don’t think that’s the situation with these positions. My view is that if some people and the media are going to hate him, then he’s going to need allies on the outside to be there, to be there to move the country forward. I don’t care about a position. Having me as a federal bureaucrat would be like a fish out of water, quite frankly.

So Carson being a federal bureaucrat, like — oh, I don't know — the president, would be like a fish out of water. That's exciting! Anyway, so he won't be taking any cabinet positions, even though he has been offered some, as he told the Washington Post. But Carson has been pretty mum about any next moves.

He told the Post that he would continue doing public speeches and media appearances, and that he would like to continue powwows with Trump when he comes to Mar-a-Lago. Carson apparently lives near Trump's Florida estate most months out of the year. So I guess he'll do what most retired neurosurgeons with failed presidential aspirations do, which is, uh, exist, apparently.