Donald Trump offers Sarah Palin a role in his cabinet
DONALD Trump offered Sarah Palin a place in his government yesterday after the controversial ex-governor of Alaska gave a rambling speech endorsing his bid for the White House.
Mrs Palin said at a rally in Iowa on Tuesday that a Trump presidency would mean ‘no more pussyfooting around’. She said he would ‘make America great again’ and asked the crowd: ‘Can I get a hallelujah?’
Mr Trump, 69, welcomed her as a ‘friend and a high quality person’ and said there would ‘certainly be a role somewhere in the administration if she wanted one’. But he also said he ‘didn’t think it would be something she’d want to do’ and stressed she had not ‘tried to make a deal’ over her support.
Her endorsement may well strengthen the billionaire tycoon’s chances of winning the Republican Party nomination. She is the dar-
‘Can I get a hallelujah?’
ling of grassroots conservatives and is loved by many evangelical Christians. The conservative Tea Party movement had tended to prefer Mr Trump’s main rival, Texan senator Ted Cruz, who was previously championed by Mrs Palin – so her support for Mr Trump was seen as a major coup for him.
But Republican sceptics say the self-styled ‘hockey mum’ might make Mr Trump look like a less serious candidate. Mrs Palin told CNN in September she would be happy to join a Trump administration, suggesting she could run the department of energy. She said: ‘Energy is my baby – oil and gas and minerals, those things that God has dumped on this part of the Earth for mankind’s use.’
The first big test for Mr Trump will be on February 1 when Iowa, which is famously conservative, will be the first state to vote in the primaries – in which voters select their party’s candidate for president. Other states vote by June 7 and the presidential election itself happens in November.