Politics

Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump for GOP presidential nomination

NOTE: This story has been updated. Find the most recent version here.

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UPDATE 4:15 p.m. Tuesday

Sarah Palin has endorsed Donald Trump, The New York Times reports.

"I'm proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for president,"Palin said in a statement provided by the Trump campaign.

"I am greatly honored to receive Sarah's endorsement," Trump said in his own statement.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

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Original story:

A flight from Anchorage to Iowa is being cited Tuesday by major news outlets as evidence for a possible endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump by former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

So far, the only firm point of data seems to be Trump promising a major revelation during an Iowa event scheduled for 2 p.m. Alaska time on Tuesday, in a Sunday message on Twitter:

A speculative story from the Washington Post on Tuesday, followed by stories from The New York Times and British newspapers The Independent and the Daily Mail, suggested the possible endorsement. The Post pointed to a Monday charter flight from Anchorage to Des Moines by a Canadair Challenger business jet, operated by charter firm Solairus Aviation, as evidence -- according to aircraft tracking site flightaware.com, the jet took off from Anchorage at about noon Monday and landed in Des Moines just before 5 p.m. Alaska time.

Palin's daughter, Bristol, may have hinted at a Trump endorsement by her mother with a blog post taking aim at Ted Cruz over what Bristol called a "slam" against her mother by his campaign. A Cruz spokesman said it might be a "blow" to Palin herself if she endorsed Trump.

Palin, who ran alongside Arizona Sen. John McCain against Barack Obama in 2008, has shared history with Trump dating back to at least 2011, when Palin and Trump shared pizza in New York as she weighed a 2012 presidential run against Obama.

During the run-up to the 2016 election, Trump has kept Palin in mind, saying in July that she would have a place in a Trump administration and appearing alongside Palin and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at a September rally in Washington, D.C., protesting a nuclear deal with Iran.

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