“I will certainly finish out this term,” Carson said during his interview with Newsmax. But he added, "I would be interested in returning to the private sector because I think you have just as much influence, maybe more, there.”

Trump appointed Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who gained notoriety for his pioneering surgery separating conjoined twins, to lead HUD even though he lacked prior housing, executive or government experience. He ran an unsuccessful bid for president in 2016.

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“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,” Carson said in a statement late Monday night. “I always stand ready to serve this great president and the United States of America."

Carson’s tenure as HUD secretary got off to a rocky start, after allowing his son to help organize an agency “listening tour” in Baltimore despite warnings from department lawyers that doing so risked violating federal ethics rules. Ben Carson Jr., a local businessman, and his wife were inviting people with whom they potentially had business dealings, The Washington Post reported at the time.

Carson also came under congressional scrutiny with his lavish efforts to redecorate his office with a $31,000 mahogany dining set.

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Carson’s signature EnVision Centers initiative has gone nowhere, having failed to attract much financial support from either the White House or private foundations. Carson had touted the centers as a way to help low-income families access employment, education and health care. But the concept has existed for decades, with limited success in moving families out of poverty, HUD staffers told The Post.

Carson also drew controversy when his political team, many of whom were inexperienced, sought to triple the minimum rent paid by families receiving federal housing assistance and to make it easier for local housing authorities to impose more-stringent work requirements for those receiving government benefits.

Under the Trump administration, the agency has hired at least two dozen highly paid political appointees without evident housing policy experience, accounting for a third of the 70 HUD appointees at the upper ranks of the federal government whose salaries top $94,000, according to a Post analysis last year.

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Several high-profile appointees who do have deep housing backgrounds have recently resigned. Carson’s former deputy, Pam Patenaude, left following disagreements with other members of the Trump administration over housing policy and the White House’s attempt to block disaster-recovery money for Puerto Rico.