In public, Donald Trump insists his racial attacks on an Indiana-born judge of Mexican descent have been “misconstrued.” But in private, Trump concedes he made a mistake, according to Ben Carson, a top advisor and former rival for the Republican presidential nomination.

“He fully recognizes that that was not the right thing to say,” Carson said in an interview, noting he’s heard Trump say so himself during a private meeting this week at Trump Tower.


Trump has not publicly backed away from comments disparaging federal judge Gonzalo Curiel – an American citizen first appointed to the bench by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger before President Barack Obama elevated him to federal court – as biased against him. Trump claimed repeatedly that Curiel, whose parents are Mexican, could not be fair because Trump wants to build a wall along the border with Mexico. He also wrongly conflated Curiel’s membership in a local Hispanic bar association – the California La Raza Lawyers Association – with immigrant advocacy group the National Council of La Raza.

He suggested over the weekend that a Muslim judge, too, might not be fair to him either because of his proposal to suspend Muslim immigration to the United States.

But Carson, the most prominent African American in Trump’s orbit, says Trump is just spilling his unfiltered thoughts, not displaying latent racism. “He was probably talking out loud rather than thinking. That’s not a good thing to do when everything you say is going to be analyzed,” he said.

Carson agreed that an ill-considered comment by a president can move financial markets or create instability in the world, and Trump, he said, is beginning to recognize it as well. “He’s coming to that understanding,” Carson said. “I think he will change it, by necessity -- just the natural evolution of moving from the primary to the main event is going to necessitate a change.”

Carson has long argued that Trump’s pattern of racially insensitive comments and controversies aren’t reflective of genuine racism. But other Republicans have begun to rebel and distance themselves from Trump, calling on him to retract his comments about Curiel or risk losing their support. House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump’s comments “textbook” racism.

Carson said these wary Republicans should line up behind Trump anyway.

“You know what I say to people who say that? I say, what’s the alternative?” Carson told POLITICO. “Look at where we are as a nation right now. We are moving full speed ahead on the progressive train, heading off the cliff. I mean, somebody 30 years ago, if you tried to describe America today, they would say, ‘get out of here.’ Are we going to continue on that train? Or do we want to get back to the more traditional values.”

“Now, does that mean that I agree with everything Donald Trump does?” he added. “Of course it doesn’t.”

Carson has emerged as a prominent fixer for Trump, smoothing the mogul’s more ragged, abrasive edges. He described his efforts to mold Trump into a more acceptable general election candidate and build bridges between Trump and segments of the Republican Party that have shunned him. Many of Carson’s former senior staff now occupy high-level roles in Trump’s campaign or in pro-Trump super PACs.

Carson is also a darling of the religious right and is working to heal the fractured relationship between Trump and many evangelical leaders who backed his top rival Ted Cruz. Many of these conservatives have been looking at Trump askance since Cruz dropped out, unsure whether to back a candidate who once poured donations into Democratic coffers and has supported universal health care and abortion rights.

To that end, Carson has been arranging a June 21 powwow between Trump and evangelical leaders in New York.

“It’s a hot ticket,” Carson said. “You know, it’s going to be a wonderful opportunity for people in the evangelical community to express their concerns and an opportunity also for Donald Trump to give his outlook. I think they’ll find that they’re not far apart at all.”

Carson describes Trump’s struggles to connect with evangelical leaders as a fundamental disconnect: Trump has admitted that he doesn’t seek forgiveness from God, but he wants religious conservatives to believe him when he says he’s truly with them on the issues, including abortion.

“What good would it do him to lie about that and to get into office and be something different?” Carson said. “How does that in any way advantage him? Particularly someone who takes great pride in being successful because that would pull the rug out from underneath him and he definitely wouldn’t be successful.”

Carson also briefly helped spearhead Trump’s vice presidential search, and though he wouldn’t divulge any names, he said Trump needs to pick “somebody who’s philosophically aligned with him as opposed to somebody who can bring this state or that state, which is the way vice presidents are more traditionally picked.”

“I envision it being somebody who is very smart and can take advantage of, you know, experiences that they’ve had,” he said. Asked whether that could include him, Carson said: “I’ve made it very clear that I think I would be exactly the wrong person … As you remember, as I began to gain traction, the media just went nuts and were beside themselves. I don’t want to be a distraction.”

That Carson and Trump have forged a close relationship is striking. In the fall, when Carson briefly led in some primary polls, Trump maligned him as akin to a child molester, and he mocked aspects of Carson’s celebrated biography, in which he described transforming from a troubled, knife-wielding youth into a God-fearing, straight-A student. Carson, too, has questioned Trump’s seriousness and thoughtfulness at times. But since Carson exited the race in March, he has increasingly ingratiated himself with Trump, and now he regularly appears on cable news as a forceful Trump surrogate.

He also has Trump’s ear. Carson said he requested, and received, a one-hour meeting with Trump in New York earlier this week. He declined to detail their conversation but he said Trump is always “very attentive” in their meetings “even though I know he’s got 600 people outside the door.”

Carson said Trump’s best attribute as his ability to digest “new information.”

“He’s able to process it very, very quickly and make a determination about whether that’s something that needs to be acted upon,” he said. “I’m very impressed every time I’m with him and he gets new information and how quickly he can process it and cut to the chase. He knows how to make a decision.”