Sarah Palin tipped for Donald Trump's cabinet and could return to frontline politics after seven year hiatus
Sarah Palin may soon return to government after a seven year hiatus, as she emerged on Wednesday as a candidate to join Donald Trump's cabinet.
Mrs Palin, the 2008 vice-presidential nominee, still has a large following among Tea Party Republicans, but has not held office since resigning as governor of Alaska in 2009.
She has starred on reality television and launched an online news network, making headlines most recently by endorsing Mr Trump for president in a widely-mocked speech featuring lines like, "right-winging, bitter-clinging, proud clingers of our guns, our God, and our religion".
As one of Mr Trump's most high-profile endorsers, though, she immediately drew speculation as a possible cabinet official. Her first choice was energy secretary, a post she said she wanted in order to end the department entirely.
But ABC News reported on Wednesday that she was being considered to run the veterans affairs department.
Several vacancies remain in the Trump cabinet, most notably secretary of state. Mr Trump's advisers have revealed that four candidates remain in the running, including 2012 nominee Mitt Romney.
Mr Romney dined with Mr Trump and Reince Priebus, the incoming chief of staff, on Tuesday night, showering the president-elect with praise afterwards, having excoriated him during the campaign.
Despite a photograph from the dinner showing Mr Romney looking distinctly uncomfortable, Mr Priebus said it had been "a lot of fun" and that Mr Trump was willing to put the past behind him.
The other candidates for the post are David Petraeus, the former general and CIA chief, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and Bob Corker, chairman of the senate foreign relations committee.
John Brennan, the CIA director, has warned Mr Trump that scrapping the Iranian nuclear deal, one of his chief foreign policy campaign pledges, would be the "height of folly" and could lead to an arms race in the Middle East.
"First of all for one administration to tear up an agreement that a previous administration had made would be almost unprecedented," he told the BBC, "and then it could lead to a weapons program inside of Iran that could lead other states in the region to embark on their own programs.
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