After finally clinching the GOP presidential nomination, Donald Trump is getting more spiritual. That is, according to Ben Carson, a top surrogate and possible vice presidential pick for the businessman's campaign.
"I know that he has prayed — I have eyewitness," Carson said in a Facebook Live interview with The Hill Friday.
But when Carson, who is deeply Christian, was asked if he had ever personally witnessed Trump in prayer, he admitted he had only heard that Trump has started to pray more often.
"I have not seen him [pray], but I have eyewitnesses who have," he said. "And I think he's starting to move more in that direction. I think that's a good thing."
Carson said Trump is moving to a place in which he believes in a "greater power." The retired neurosurgeon also said he told Trump last week that he believes "God is using him."
During the discussion with The Hill, Carson also broached the subject of forgiveness, a practice famously avoided by the presumptive Republican nominee. Carson discussed what it has been like to forgive Trump for the intense personal attacks he launched against his one-time foe.
Carson admitted that Trump has never actually asked for forgiveness for the things he said during the primary contest, but said the brash billionaire has acknowledged his mistakes in his own way. During the primary, Trump asserted Carson had a pathological temper that was incurable, comparable to that of a child molester.
"We were talking and he was just explaining why he said those things," Carson said. "And [Trump] said, ‘You know, even though you didn't hit me I had to find a way to somehow beat you back because this wasn't working the way it was supposed to work.'"
Carson said he told Trump that his decision to attack him personally "is what politicians do." However, Carson stands by his decision to avoid attacking Trump in the same way.
"I would never give up my values and principles for political office," Carson said.
Asked about the potential for being Trump's running mate, Carson said he feels he does more good by remaining on the outside, as an advisor to the presumptive nominee, adding that he would only consider a position in the administration if Trump was desperate.
"The only way I'd do that is if there was no other person who seemed to really fit," he said, "and Donald Trump and others thought I was really the only person who could make that work."
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