Trump says he will award Presidential Medal of Freedom to Ben Carson

Trump Announces Plan to Award Ben Carson the Presidential Medal of Freedom

For­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump has revealed that he plans to award Dr. Ben Car­son the Pres­i­den­tial Medal of Free­dom, the high­est civil­ian hon­or in the Unit­ed States. The announce­ment adds anoth­er chap­ter to the long-stand­ing rela­tion­ship between Trump and Car­son, one that began dur­ing the 2016 Repub­li­can pri­ma­ry and evolved into a last­ing polit­i­cal alliance.

Who Is Ben Carson?

Dr. Ben Car­son first rose to promi­nence as one of the world’s lead­ing pedi­atric neu­ro­sur­geons. Born in Detroit and raised by a sin­gle moth­er, Carson’s sto­ry of per­se­ver­ance and aca­d­e­m­ic excel­lence became an Amer­i­can suc­cess sto­ry. His ground­break­ing work in sep­a­rat­ing con­joined twins earned him glob­al recog­ni­tion and even­tu­al­ly led him into pub­lic life.

Car­son lat­er entered pol­i­tics, run­ning for the Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion in 2016. While his cam­paign didn’t go the dis­tance, his can­di­da­cy caught the atten­tion of Don­ald Trump, who praised Carson’s calm demeanor and intel­lect. When Trump won the pres­i­den­cy, Car­son was tapped to lead the Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment (HUD).

Carson’s Tenure in Government

As HUD Sec­re­tary, Car­son over­saw fed­er­al hous­ing pol­i­cy dur­ing a peri­od marked by polit­i­cal polar­iza­tion and a nation­al debate over afford­able hous­ing. Sup­port­ers cred­it him with focus­ing on dereg­u­la­tion and reduc­ing what he described as bureau­crat­ic bar­ri­ers to hous­ing devel­op­ment. Crit­ics, how­ev­er, argued that his poli­cies lacked urgency in address­ing home­less­ness and hous­ing inequal­i­ty.

Despite the mixed reviews, Car­son remained one of Trump’s most loy­al cab­i­net mem­bers, rarely stray­ing from the president’s agen­da and fre­quent­ly defend­ing his administration’s poli­cies.

Why the Medal of Freedom?

The Pres­i­den­tial Medal of Free­dom is award­ed to indi­vid­u­als who have made extra­or­di­nary con­tri­bu­tions to the Unit­ed States in fields rang­ing from pub­lic ser­vice and sci­ence to sports and the arts. Past recip­i­ents have includ­ed fig­ures like Rosa Parks, Moth­er Tere­sa, Neil Arm­strong, and more recent­ly, Rush Lim­baugh and Tiger Woods.

Trump empha­sized both Carson’s med­ical achieve­ments and his ser­vice in gov­ern­ment as rea­sons for the hon­or. Carson’s life sto­ry — from pover­ty to becom­ing one of the world’s most respect­ed sur­geons — has long inspired many Amer­i­cans, par­tic­u­lar­ly those who see him as a sym­bol of per­se­ver­ance and faith.

Political and Cultural Significance

For Trump, the deci­sion to rec­og­nize Car­son also car­ries polit­i­cal weight. Car­son has remained a stead­fast sup­port­er even after Trump left office, fre­quent­ly speak­ing out in defense of his poli­cies. Award­ing him the nation’s high­est civil­ian hon­or rein­forces Trump’s ties to his clos­est allies as he con­tin­ues to play a cen­tral role in con­ser­v­a­tive pol­i­tics.

The announce­ment may also spark debate. While Carson’s med­ical career is uni­ver­sal­ly respect­ed, his polit­i­cal lega­cy is more polar­iz­ing. Some will cel­e­brate the award as a well-deserved recog­ni­tion of his con­tri­bu­tions to med­i­cine and pub­lic life, while oth­ers may view it as a par­ti­san deci­sion.