After criticising Trump, Ben Carson plans to endorse him
Failed Presidential candidate Dr Ben Carson is believed to be planning to endorse Donald Trump on Friday.
The news comes despite Carson having been highly critical of Trump throughout his campaign.
Two sources close to the two parties told the Washington Post that plans for Carson to endorse Trump were finalised on Thursday morning.
According to the report, the sources requested anonymity, but said Carson planned to make the announcement on Friday morning at Mar-a-Lago, which is owned by Trump.
Previously Trump was endorsed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has since faced calls to step down, not to mention ridicule for looking unengaged during a Trump rally.
Retired neurosurgeon Carson, who has made a string of anti-LGBT comments, made the announcement in a statement on his website last week that he was suspending his campaign, saying he did not see how it could continue.
Carson has made a stunning number of homophobic and transphobic statements as he has campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination, including saying that transgender people in the millitary would be a “distraction” and a “social experiment” that the millitary did not need.
He has also stated that he would consider reintroducing don’t ask don’t tell and that he thinks that LGBT people caused the fall of Rome.
Carson has repeatedly been forced to apologise when caught making overtly homophobic comments – apologising after he was caught comparing gay people to paedophiles, and again apologising after he was caught claiming that prisons ‘prove’ being gay is a choice.
His repeated humiliations have not dissuaded him, however – just last year he compared gay couples to conjoined twins.
Trump has rallied against equality in recent weeks, telling old Fox News he would “strongly consider” a plot to overturn same-sex marriage, and telling evangelical leaders they can “trust” him to protect “traditional marriage”.
However, he has tied himself in a knot by simultaneously telling a lesbian journalist that he would “move forward on LGBT rights” – and when challenged attempted to maintain both viewpoints simultaneously.
