“I’ve had talks about being presidential, about toning it down a bit, appealing to a broader group of people,” former GOP candidate Ben Carson said of his conversations with Donald Trump. | AP Photo Carson claims credit for helping Trump act more 'presidential' 'You did notice that he wasn’t nearly as caustic in the last debate,' the retired neurosurgeon says.

Ben Carson says he’s rubbing off on Donald Trump and has convinced him — at least in flashes — to act more presidential.

“I’ve had talks about being presidential, about toning it down a bit, appealing to a broader group of people,” Carson said in a phone interview on Friday morning. “You did notice that he wasn’t nearly as caustic in the last debate. People appreciated that. It’s a matter of cultivating and capitalizing on that.”


But Carson acknowledged he couldn’t hold back Trump’s instincts forever. Trump provoked another food fight this week when he accused Ted Cruz of disseminating a racy magazine photo of Trump’s wife, Melania, and threatened to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife, Heidi. He went further, retweeting a supporter’s unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz, prompting Cruz to lash out and call Trump a “sniveling coward.”

Carson said the moment is part of a broader craving by the public for gladiatorial combat among politicians.

“You know, when I was in the race, that was what I complained about constantly, the fact that it was getting into personalities,” he said. “We have all these serious things. Nobody wanted to hear that. We want to hear juicy stuff … Maybe it’s just human nature.”

The retired neurosurgeon also said he isn’t interested in a title or position in a Trump administration. Rather, he’s interested in a pipeline to deliver advice to the Republican presidential front-runner.

Carson, at times, sounded resigned to his support for Trump, who once mocked him and compared him to a child molester when Carson's ratings became competitive in national polls. Though he since made amends with Trump and endorsed him with fanfare earlier this month, Carson suggested his support was simply a reflection of his dissatisfaction with the alternatives.

“I’m not gonna go for Hillary or Sanders because I just believe that that’s leading our country in a completely different direction,” he said. “When I look at Kasich, he doesn’t have a pathway, and when I look at Cruz, he is such a polarizing figure that, yes, he can get conservative core, but I don’t think he’s going to bring in people from the outside.”

“So what does that leave? It leaves Donald Trump,” he said. “I’m a pragmatic individual and I do believe that if we get to a brokered convention and the powers that be decide on somebody different, all of those millions of people who have been brought into the process by Trump, if they think those people are gonna stay, they’re nuts. They basically will have destroyed the unity in the party and destroyed any possibilities in the party.”

With Trump, Carson said, there’s at least a chance that the country will shake up its politics and approach to governing. He said that for all Trump’s bombast, he believes the mogul has America’s best interests at heart.

“It always ends up – it seems like the same situation with traditional politicians,” he said. With Trump, “there is the possibility that we might be able to take a different road. Hopefully that will be a better road.”

