Ben Carson is set to endorse Donald Trump on Friday for the Republican presidential nomination, according to multiple news reports.
Carson, who ended this campaign last week, would become the second former candidate to endorse Trump, behind New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
The
Washington Post reported that Carson and Trump met privately on Thursday at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, which is owned by the real estate mogul.
Trump said during Thursday night's GOP debate that Carson would endorse him, according to
CNN.
"There's two Donald Trumps," Carson told Fox News Radio on Thursday, confirming that he was "leaning" toward a Trump endorsement. "There's the Donald Trump that you see on television and who gets out in front of big audiences, and there's the Donald Trump behind the scenes. They're not the same person. One's very much an entertainer, and one is actually a thinking individual."
Carson, who had a strong following in the conservative evangelical community, had challenged Trump in the polls earlier but fell back in the pack once voting started, noted CNN.
"You have to consider all the information, who is most likely to win, and what kind of shenanigans will drive voters away so they will not participate in the process," Carson told CNN. "We have to be very careful in all those things."
Ted Cruz, now running second to Trump, left Carson fuming last month when his supporters reportedly told Iowa caucus-goers that the retired neurosurgeon was dropping out of race, which was false, noted the
Huffington Post.
Carson told MSNBC the rumor did "devastating" damage to his campaign in Iowa. Cruz to publicly apologized to Carson during a Republican debate in New Hampshire, noted the
Wall Street Journal.
Trump once questioned Carson's life story as a troubled youth and said Carson's "pathological temper" while growing up was not unlike that of a child molester, reported
USA Today..
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