Trump persuades Ben Carson to take the HUD Cabinet seat

Newt Gingrich this morning on Fox and Friends gave away the real story behind the announcement today that Dr. Benjamin Carson has been “chosen” (AP’s word) secretary of Housing and Urban Development. According to Newt, Donald Trump has spent two weeks persuading Carson to take the job. It’s pretty clear to me that the reality show genius about to be inaugurated as president intends to make good on his promise to America’s inner cities quite visibly. As a real estate developer, he know which incentives to use to attract investors in the inner cities. What’s needed is a sense among African-Americans in particular, but also among everyone afflicted with a sense of hopelessness and economic impotence, that a new era has dawned. New possibilities are opening up. As Trump proclaimed, “what have you got to lose?”

Now it is Dr. Carson, whose personal story is so inspiring that Cuba Gooding, Jr. portrayed him in a hagiographic biopic, who needs to become the spokesman, the embodiment of the new opportunities America is offering under Trump. As Scott Adams rightly points out: Remember what I taught you in the past year: Facts don’t matter. What matters is how you feel. And when you watch Trump and Pence fight and scratch to keep jobs in this country, it changes how you will feel about them for their entire term. The thing about hope is that, like fear, it can be contagious. Dr. Carson is just the man for the job, and that’s why Trump never gave up in persuading him to take it.