AP Photo Ben Carson stops playing nice with Donald Trump

Ben Carson is taking off the gloves — and taking on Donald Trump.

The retired neurosurgeon and Republican 2016 presidential candidate has finally begun hitting Trump following a spate of recent polls showing him gaining ground on the brash real estate mogul.


First, Carson cracked wise about the idea of a Carson-Trump ticket. He said that wasn't a bad idea, except for their differences on immigration policy.

"It sounds really cool, you know, 'Let's just round them all up and send them back,'" Carson said during an appearance at the Commonwealth Club of California on Tuesday. "People who say that have no idea what that would entail in terms of our legal system, the costs — forget about it. Plus, where you gonna send them? It's a double whammy."

Then Carson, speaking with Fox New's Megyn Kelly on Tuesday night, was asked about Trump's comment that, as a former doctor, he had no job-creating experience.

"Well, my response to that is that interestingly enough — and perhaps a lot of people don't know this — I've done lots of things in my life other than medicine. I have decades of experience on corporate boards — Kellogg, Costco, Vaccinogen, started a national nonprofit, have been involved in multitudinous things," Carson said.

Carson has enjoyed a polling surge among Republican primary voters in Iowa and nationally, putting him on a collision course with Trump, who has led most polls of the GOP field for weeks. But until now, he has avoided criticizing the brash real estate mogul, who has generally had positive things to say about Carson.

Last week, Trump indicated he would happily punch back at Carson, should the latter begin attacking him.

"I'm hoping for Ben to really hit me at some point, because I love to counterpunch," Trump said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the campaign had "no response" to Carson's comments.