In a brief interview with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson, Bloomberg’s Kevin Cirilli discussed Carson’s background and legacy. (He had to. It’s not like Carson has a lot of HUD accomplishments to brag about.)

It got weird near the end, though. When sharing stories about Donald Trump, Carson offered this nugget around the 2:15 mark.

… I was riding with him in the Beast [the presidential state car] the other day, and he started talking about the people who wanted us to remove “In God We Trust” from our money. And he said, “That’s not gonna happen as long as I’m here.”

What on earth was Trump referencing?

There’s no active lawsuit to remove the phrase from currency — certainly none that has any chance of succeeding. The most recent one, to my memory, was a Hail Mary attempt by an independent Satanist last November, and the Supreme Court dismissed it without comment.

There have been more credible challenges to remove the religious phrase from money in recent years, led by activist Michael Newdow, but those challenges haven’t even been successful at the appellate level, with virtually every court hearing these cases striking them down unanimously.

Even if there was a successful challenge, what the hell is Trump going to do about it? He’s not a judge. He’s not a lawmaker. And none of the challenges to the phrase are legislative ones.

If Trump really did say that, he was talking out of his ass.

For Carson to repeat it as if Trump said something courageous or sensible reveals his own ignorance about the topic.

(Image via Shutterstock. Thanks to Brian for the link)

