Half-term former Governor Sarah Palin is under consideration for secretary of veterans affairs, a close Palin aide and a top Donald Trump transition official told ABC News.
The aide said that the Tea Party darling recently told Trump transition officials, “I feel as though the megaphone I have been provided can be used in a productive and positive way to help those desperately in need.” Her relative degree of sobriety at the time is a matter of some discussion, we’ve heard.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest government agency, with over 300,000 federal employees and a budget of $182 billion for 2017.
Palin, the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential nominee, has not been to Trump Tower in New York City to meet with the president-elect, but she was one of his earliest and highest-profile endorsers. The Palin aide said she has had discussions with the transition team, and the top transition official confirms this.
“Alt-right” mouthpiece Steve Bannon, Trump’s campaign CEO and the president-elect’s pick for chief strategist, is close with Palin. In 2011 he wrote and directed a documentary about her titled “The Undefeated”, which reviewers panned (generously, at that) as ‘biased’ and ‘hagiographic’.
After ABC News reported on her being under consideration for VA secretary, Palin posted a message on Facebook that she then tweeted, writing in part, “We should be grateful we’ll soon have a commander-in-chief who will champion our vets and honor the promises our nation made.”