Ben Carson's Home Vandalized With Anti-Trump Message

VIENNA, VA—The Virginia home of Ben Carson, the retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon and sole African-American member of President Donald Trump's cabinet, was vandalized. An anti-Trump message and expletive were left at his residence in Vienna, NBC Washington reports.

Carson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, tells the news station the home was vandalized when he was away.

"We were out of town and our house was toilet papered," Carson told NBC Washington. "They had painted 'F Trump' on it as well."

In relaying the news first on Facebook, Carson shared that he had also encountered "less than kind" behavior when he initially bought a farm in Maryland. A neighbor immediately put up a Confederate flag, he said, which was later followed by all the other neighbors setting out American flags.

• Retired Hopkins Neurosurgeon Ben Carson Confirmed As HUD Secretary

In Virginia, Carson said neighbors cleaned up, and he doesn't want to hold any ill will. "You can't necessarily control the animosity and the hatred of someone else, but you can control how you react," he told NBC Washington.

Regarding the violence in Charlottesville, he declined to criticize President Trump's response. He said that it's up to the American people, not Trump, to unify the country.

Carson first shared the news of the vandalism via a Facebook post.

See more from NBC Washington.

- By Patch Editor Emily Leayman

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images News/Getty Images.