Taxpayers bought Ben Carson a $31k dining room set — and he's keeping it

Tuesday morning brought news of a lawsuit alleging that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) demoted and replaced an official who protested taxpayer-funded furniture purchases for Secretary Ben Carson.

The suit alleges that when Helen Foster informed senior officials the limit on furniture was $5,000, they told her that “$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair.”

And Tuesday evening, The New York Times reported that officials at HUD spent a whopping $31,000 on a dining room set for Carson’s office.

Carson claimed that he “didn’t know that the table had been purchased.” But he said he would be keeping it.

And this extravagant purchase by his department comes as the Trump administration proposes cutting HUD’s programs for the elderly and homeless.

Carson is already facing a separate ethics investigation from his department’s Inspector General over improperly giving his family members government roles. He is the sixth of this administration’s Cabinet members to face such a probe.

Other ethics investigations also center on Trump officials using federal money to purchase luxury items. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, for example, is under investigation for billing the government for $90,000 in first class plane tickets. Pruitt claimed he needed to sit in first class because passengers in economy might beat him up.

And Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also came under fire for using a government plane at taxpayer expense to view the solar eclipse in 2017.

Trump’s closest advisers are plundering the Treasury for their own comfort and enjoyment, while cutting funds to help the neediest citizens.