HUD

Robert Reich
1.12.2017

HUD – the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development – spends over $32 billion a year on real estate. That puts it at the crossroads of the Trump industry and the president-elect's conflicts of interest. But today, at his confirmation hearing, Ben Carson, Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of HUD -- refused to promise that HUD money wouldn’t go to the Trump empire.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: “Can you assure me that not a single taxpayer dollar that you give out will financially benefit the president elect or his family?"

CARSON: "I can assure you that the things that I do are driven by a sense of morals and values, and therefore I will absolutely not play favorites for anyone.”
WARREN: "Do I take that to mean that you might manage programs that might significantly benefit the president-elect?"

CARSON: "You can take it to mean that I will manage things in a way that benefits the American people. That is going to be the goal. If there happens to be an extraordinarily good program that's working for millions of people and it turns out that someone that you're targeting is going to benefit, you know $10 from it, am I going to say no, the rest of you Americans can't have it? I think logic and common sense probably would be the best way.”

WARREN: "The problem is that you can't assure us that HUD money, not of $10 varieties, but multimillion dollar varieties, will not end up in the president-elect's pockets, and the reason you can't assure us of that is because the president-elect is hiding his family's business interests from you, from me, from the rest of America."

Exactly. Carson and every other cabinet member can’t swear they won’t enrich Trump because as long as Trump refuses to put his assets into a blind trust administered by an independent trustee, they will face the possibility every day.
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