A sure-fire campaign issue for President Trump heading into 2020 is sitting on the table like free money if at any point he feels like taking it.

His own HUD secretary, Ben Carson, is reconfiguring the way people of low income receive public housing subsidies. The goal is to ensure that illegal immigrants aren’t taking in welfare that otherwise might go to Americans.

“It seems only logical that tax-paying American citizens should be taken care of first,” Carson said Tuesday during a hearing on Capitol Hill. “It’s not that we’re cruel, mean-hearted. It’s that we are logical. This is common sense. You take care of your own first.”

It would admittedly be a big change, given that nearly every current government policy dictates that we don’t take care of our “own” before everyone else.

Contrary to the liberal lie that illegal immigrants don’t consume a dime of welfare (helpfully perpetuated by the national news media), public housing subsidies are just one of the many benefits they do consume. Anyone who can’t work is eligible for housing subsidies. That includes children, and, yes, immigrant children, many of whom have parents or other family residing in the U.S. illegally.

HUD simply provides the child with a subsidy, and the child’s parents or other family members move in with the child in what is known as a “mixed family” household.

HUD has identified as many as 25,000 mixed family households, containing about 32,000 inhabitants who would otherwise not be eligible for government subsidies.

Democrats in Congress counter that the subsidies are prorated only to cover those who are eligible. But if the eligible recipient is a child, it makes no difference. The child can’t live alone, and the subsidy then effectively functions as free additional income to whatever money the adults of the home are bringing in from their jobs. Yes, current rules state that the subsidies are to be adjusted depending on whatever income the household brings in, but what if that income isn’t reported? What if that income is cash from illegal employment?

Trump wants to appeal to black voters. So here's another area for him to consider. The most recent demographics data on public housing from HUD say that 41% of public housing subsidies go to black households, who make up 12 percent of the total U.S. population. The backlog for public housing subsidies is in the tens of thousands, with some states even turning off their application process until they can address the wait list.

A lot of people, including the disabled and the elderly, rely on public housing. They are all waiting, and 32,000 people illegally residing in the U.S. are making them wait longer.

That’s a winning issue for Trump to take up, almost as if it were a handout.