What Sarah Palin Really Wants From Her Donald Trump Endorsement

Sarah Palin is expected to endorse Donald Trump for president today, a move that could provide a needed boost for Trump as he heads into the competitive Iowa caucuses.

Does the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate want anything in return? Most likely, yes — Palin, who popularized the term “drill, baby, drill,” has said she’d like to be Trump’s Secretary of Energy. And Trump has said he’d be willing to give Palin a position in his cabinet, should he be elected president.

“I’d love that,” Trump said back in July during an interview with Mama Grizzly Radio, a station which offers only news about Sarah Palin. “Because she really is somebody who knows what’s happening and she’s a special person.”

Shortly afterward, Palin was asked on CNN what position she would like to have in Trump’s administration. Without missing a beat, Palin said she’d want to head the Department of Energy — but only so she could eventually get rid of it.

“I think a lot about the Department of Energy, because 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,” she said. “If I were head of that, I’d get rid of it.”

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Palin also said that, as energy secretary, she would give individual states more control over oil and gas development within their borders. However, as Politico and Vox pointed out at the time, the Department of Energy does not regulate oil and gas development — that responsibility goes to the Department of the Interior. The Department of Energy mainly oversees the U.S. nuclear weapons program and conducts energy-related research. The current Energy Secretary, Ernest Moniz, is a nuclear physicist.