Without doubt, Dr. Carson has logged some impressive achievements. Arising from humble beginnings and after an ivy league education, he had a long and successful career as a pediatric neurosurgeon, notably having “performed the first separation of twins conjoined at the back of the head,” as his bio in the Mandate for Leadership states. Two of Dr. Carson’s notable political achievements are that he ran for president as a Republican and that he served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during the Trump administration.
There’s also another side to Dr. Carson, which is adroitly summed up by satirist Andy Borowitz: “Brain surgeons, long burdened with the onerous reputation of being among the smartest people in the world, are expressing relief that the Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson is shattering that stereotype once and for all.”
How did Dr. Carson manage to call his intelligence into question? With various questionable statements, most notably one about the ancient pyramids of Egypt being used to store grain. Here is what Politico reports him as saying:
“‘My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain. Now all the archaeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big if you stop and think about it. And I don’t think it’d just disappear over the course of time to store that much grain,’ he told students, according to the video posted [by Buzzfeed].”
In the video, Dr. Carson goes on to dispute the claim that aliens helped build the pyramids. According to Carson, “various of scientists have said, ‘Well, you know there were alien beings that came down and they have special knowledge and that’s how—’you know, it doesn’t require an alien being when God is with you.” While it is conceivable that more than one scientist has claimed at some time that aliens helped build the pyramids, what scientists more typically do is debunk such fanciful, untrue allegations.
According to Politico, when questioned about the video, rather than admit to being wrong, “Carson defended his beliefs…telling reporters in Miami that ‘some people believe in the Bible, like I do, and don’t find that to be silly at all and believe that God created the Earth and don’t find that to be silly at all.’”
Regarding an implied connection between belief in the Bible and the use of the pyramids of ancient Egypt, even biblical literalist Ken Ham, the president of Answers in Genesis and the Ark Encounter project, joins the debunking team, saying: “The construction of the pyramids is not specifically mentioned in the Bible. What we believe about their purpose does not impinge on any biblical doctrine.” In other words, to defend a mistake about the pyramids, Dr. Carson made another mistake about the Bible, at least by implication.
(Also, the biblical story of Joseph does not mention his having any role in the construction of a pyramid. If one accepts the story of Joseph as having some historical truth to it, that story is credited as taking place from about 1750 to 1500 B.C. The great pyramid of Giza was completed centuries earlier, around the 25th century B.C.)
According to Politico, Dr. Carson has also waded into the manufactured controversy of transgender people going to the bathroom, saying: “How about we have a transgender bathroom?…It’s not fair for them to make everybody else uncomfortable.” Separate but equal, Dr. Carson? How does the sight of someone’s feet in an adjoining stall create discomfort? (As for the appearance of people outside of bathroom stalls, fear of transgender people in public has predictably led to harassment—or worse–of cis and trans people alike.)
Dr. Carson has also been criticized for his misunderstandings of science. While those misunderstandings are especially concerning considering Dr. Carson’s medical training, they are in keeping with conservative opinion. Writing for Time, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar states that Dr. Carson’s view that “sexual orientation is a choice is remarkably unscientific.” (One example of a Republican’s claiming that homosexuality is a choice is provided by Ken Buck.)
Abdul-Jabbar also writes that “Carson says he has not seen ‘overwhelming science’ that proves climate change is manmade. This head-in-the-sand approach could prove disastrous” should Carson become president. Project 2025 makes climate denialism a cornerstone of its proposed government policy.
Additionally, Abdul-Jabbar cites a New Yorker article written by a prominent physicist taking Carson to task for his “refutation of the Big Bang theory based on the second law of thermodynamics…Carson misunderstood and misstated the actual law.”
(Young earth creationists, many of which are conservative, are fond of misrepresenting the second law of thermodynamics so as to claim that the law makes an old/big bang universe and/or evolution impossible. Dr. Carson’s views on creation and evolution are for the most part in line with young earth creationism and evolution denial.)
According to Politico, another common conservative assertion that Dr. Carson has made is that Hitler imposed gun control on Germany. (not true) The implication is that if gun control were imposed on Americans, they would not be able to resist tyranny.
It may be convincingly argued that the Second Amendment was not written in support of citizens overthrowing the government (what government has ever supported its own demise?); it was written in support of citizens being gathered into militias to put down rebellions—including slave rebellions–and defend against invasion. The founders were distrustful of standing armies, and at any rate the fledgling United States lacked the money to create much in the way of professional armed forces.
Specifically, Politico quotes Dr. Carson as saying: “I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed….I’m telling you, there is a reason these dictatorial people take the guns first.” Also: “German citizens were disarmed by their government in the late 1930s.” (repeat: history says otherwise. And there’s this. Also this. And this.)
Politico continues, quoting Dr. Carson as saying: “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.” This remark is in step with other statements made by Republicans. The opinions of Thomas Jefferson and other founders were more inclined toward acceptance of Muslims, including in public office.
But there is more to Dr. Carson than a Politico article. This report by Brendan Williams on the Southwestern Law School site begins with a summary of corruption at HUD during the Reagan administration and lists, at considerable length, the mismanagement of HUD by and under Dr. Carson, who notably lacked administrative experience before taking the reins at HUD. The report includes his statements and actions against families with immigrants and transgender people.
The report states: “At [HUD], Carson was reportedly invisible: ‘Carson himself was barely to be seen—he never made the walk-through of the building customary of past new secretaries.’” But his family, including his wife and son, were visible. Soon after assuming his role at HUD, “Carson made news for leading prayer at a Cabinet meeting, asking God to bless President Trump’s tax cuts.”
Next, “Carson’s son invited an administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
to an event in Baltimore; three months later CMS awarded a $485,000 contract to his wife’s company. Carson was forced to order an internal investigation. And Carson would be forced by public outrage to cancel an order for a $31,000 dining set that he appeared to blame his wife for.”
Carson also acted to increase rent in public housing and impose unrealistic work requirements on tenants (low-level employees, such as those typically found in public housing, are often not at liberty to increase their working hours to meet some government-imposed standard). Carson opposed allowing transgender people into homeless shelters.
If all of this sounds like an ad hominem (and therefore unfair) attack on Dr. Carson, please consider the record of Dr. Carson and others at HUD as indicative of what can be expected if Project 2025 comes to fruition. Among the people supporting Project 2025, Dr. Carson is not an outlier in his opinions. Neither is his less-than-stellar record as a Trump administration official unique. Project 2025 explicitly aims to value political loyalty over competence (and integrity) when it comes to awarding people jobs in the government. We can expect many more stories of cronyism, nepotism, scandal, outrageous statements, self-dealing, weird beliefs, corruption, and political infighting taking precedence over competent administration if Project 2025 is implemented. The Mandate for Leadership and its authors uniformly cast the Trump administration as a role model.
For an example of what to expect if Project 2025 comes to pass, the report offers this:
“of ‘24 Trump administration HUD appointees without housing policy experience on their
résumés or LinkedIn profiles, 16 listed [worked] on either Carson’s or Trump’s presidential campaigns—or had personal connections to their families.’ One ‘senior advisor’ with a ‘$131,767-a-year role’ had ‘promoted a conspiracy theory on Twitter that Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman had taken part in a satanic ritual’—but had no housing background. Arguably, Carson’s HUD has become the ‘swamp’ President Trump so famously
promised to ‘drain.’”
