Trump picks Carson to fill housing post
His lack of expertise draws criticism from Democrats
NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump chose retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson on Monday to be secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Carson, who opposed Trump in the Republican primaries, has no background in government or running a large bureaucracy.
In a statement, Trump said he was “thrilled to nominate” Carson, describing his “brilliant mind” and his passion “about strengthening communities and families within those communities.”
Carson, who grew up poor, quickly endorsed Trump after ending his own presidential bid despite Trump noting what he called Carson’s “pathological temper.” Carson said shortly after Trump’s election victory that he wasn’t certain he’d fit into a Cabinet-style role in a job like Health and Human Services secretary.
Democrats swiftly criticized Carson’s qualifications for his job. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California called him a “disconcerting and disturbingly unqualified choice.” And Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the incoming Senate minority leader, said he had “serious concerns about Dr. Carson’s lack of expertise and experience in dealing with housing issues. Someone who is as anti-government as him is a strange fit for housing secretary, to say the least.”
Carson would oversee a budget of nearly $50 billion that provides rental assistance for more than 5 million households. Demand for that assistance is high in part because housing costs are rising faster than incomes. HUD also promotes home ownership with the Federal Housing Administration underwriting about 1 in 6 mortgages issued in the U.S. The agency is also responsible for enforcing federal fair-housing laws.
Housing advocates alarmed by his nomination warned that, if Carson remains true to his political commentary about the nation’s housing programs, he could pursue an agenda sharply at odds with efforts by President Barack Obama’s administration to promote racial integration in housing and with other anti-segregation policies championed by groups such as the NAACP. Carson might also abandon or place new restrictions on government subsidies and other programs that conservatives criticize as fostering a culture of overreliance on government handouts, they said.
“Coming to lead an agency that serves the poorest people in the country with a philosophy of if people are that poor it’s because they’re not trying hard enough could have a big impact on the people HUD serves,” said Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
The biggest shifts under Carson could come in the area of fair housing, experts said. The Obama administration is just starting to implement a new rule requiring communities to study and report on patterns of racial and income disparity in housing, with HUD overseeing the strategy. The federal government is giving these communities detailed data on poverty rates, school demographics, where minority groups live and whether they are segregated from white neighborhoods. Where segregation exists, HUD and local officials are supposed to come up with
plans to reduce it.
Conservative critics have called the policy government overreach, and Carson wrote last year that requiring cities and towns to publicly report racial disparities in housing would “fundamentally change” communities by requiring affordable housing to be built in wealthier neighborhoods.
In a Washington Times oped, he issued a strong warning against the policy, comparing it to “mandated social-engineering schemes” typical of socialism.
As housing secretary, Carson could urge Congress to take this authority away from HUD, experts said. But even if that didn’t happen, Carson could direct his staff not to enforce the rules, by moving resources out of the fair-housing division and into other areas of the department.
“Just sort of ignoring it on its own could mean much less oversight,” Yentel said.
Groups representing the government’s more than 3,000 local public-housing authorities said Carson’s expected push for a weaker government hand in housing could also bring some relief from regulations they say are too time-consuming and expensive to carry out.
In recent years, there have been new requirements to employ public-housing residents in redevelopment projects, the fair-housing rule and now a no-smoking rule.
“We’re concerned that HUD can’t fulfill many of its mandates,” said Tim Kaiser, executive director of the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association.
These are complex issues that bedevil policy experts, but Alphonso Jackson, HUD
secretary under President George W. Bush, said Carson’s leadership abilities will see him through the challenges of running HUD.
“Ben is a leader, and he engenders energy in people,” he said. “I don’t want to prejudge him.”
CLIMATE CHANGE
On Monday, Trump received a fresh stream of visitors to the New York skyscraper that bears his name. His most surprising guest was Democratic former Vice President Al Gore. Transition officials said early Monday that Gore would meet with Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, about climate change, which is Gore’s signature issue.
But Gore said he also met with Trump directly and that the two had a “very productive conversation.”
“It was a sincere search for areas of common ground,” said Gore, who did not detail what the men discussed. The president-elect has called man-made climate change a hoax and has pledged to undo a number of regulations designed to protect the environment.
His running mate, Mike Pence, told reporters that “decisions were made” Monday that would be announced in the coming days. It was unclear if one of those was secretary of state, for which Trump has expanded his pool of candidates beyond the four finalists his aides identified last week.
Over the weekend, two people close to the transition said Trump is moving away from two of the four: former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.
That would leave former CIA Director and retired Gen. David Petraeus, who pleaded guilty to leaking classified information, and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Among other possibilities, one official said, is Jon Huntsman, a former Republican governor of Utah who also served as the ambassador to China and speaks Mandarin.
The people close to the transition spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the private process publicly.
Trump is to meet with Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson today in New York as he widens his search for his secretary of state.
Transition spokesman Jason Miller didn’t give any details about the reason for the meeting, but Tillerson, 64, is under consideration as the nation’s top diplomat, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Exxon spokesmen didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Among other foreign policy priorities, Trump has vowed to overhaul the U.S. relationship with Russia, which has been in a deep freeze since President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014. More recently, U.S. intelligence agencies have accused the Russian government of interfering in the U.S. presidential election.
Tillerson steered Exxon’s 2011 deal with Kremlin-controlled oil explorer Rosneft that gave the U.S. driller access to Russia’s vast Arctic, deepwater and shale oil deposits. But shortly after the venture discovered a billion-barrel
crude field in the Kara Sea, the U.S. and European Union imposed sanctions to punish Russia for supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine and for the annexation of Crimea.
Trump is also said to be seriously considering Mary Fallin, Oklahoma’s Republican governor, for interior secretary, which would presage a shift away from the department’s current approach toward energy and public lands. Obama has aggressively sought to shut down fossil fuel production and increase the use of renewable sources of energy, while Fallin is an outspoken proponent of drilling and fracking on public lands.
Andrew Puzder, a wealthy California donor to Trump’s campaign whose company, CKE Restaurants, oversees chains such as Hardee’s, is said to be a leading candidate for labor secretary. Puzder has been critical of the Obama administration’s labor policies, including its push for a higher minimum wage and for new overtime rules for workers.
NYC SEEKS REIMBURSEMENT
Separately, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he’s asking the government for $35 million to cover costs related to protecting Trump, who has indicated he will largely work out of Trump Tower before his inauguration.
De Blasio said he’s spoken with Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s choice for treasury secretary, about the city’s ongoing costs guarding the brass-fronted building on Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th streets.
The Police Department has been discussing permanent security measures with the Secret Service, said Commissioner James O’Neill, who
joined de Blasio Monday at a news conference at a lower Manhattan police precinct.
City Sanitation Department trucks have been used to line the Trump Tower curb, clogging traffic on Fifth Avenue near 57th Street as the Secret Service and heavily armed police try to secure the building, since Trump became the Republican nominee in July. It’s intensified since he was elected, with unmarked cars and plainclothes officers.
The city is seeking reimbursement for providing security from Nov. 8 until Trump is sworn in Jan. 20, as well as coverage of ongoing costs for protecting the tower during his administration.
“This is truly unusual, it’s the first time we’ve had NYPD providing such a crucial role providing security for a president-elect,” said de Blasio, a Democrat. “I remain hopeful because when you see other instances when New York City provided security, we got good reimbursement.”
Monday night, the president-elect dined at one of his favorite New York restaurants, 21 Club, with this family. He ate at the same Midtown Manhattan restaurant last month but did not notify the reporters and photographers who follow his movements, drawing criticism from journalist groups. The press pool did travel with Trump to the restaurant Monday and waited outside in a van while the president-elect ate.