‘She paved the way for Trump’: will Sarah Palin stay in the Republican spotlight?

Palin's return to the headlines - for her defamation trial and flouting Covid rules - is a reminder to many that her ascent in 2008 was a pivotal moment in US politics

Removing a white face mask as she took the witness stand behind a Plexiglass shield, Sarah Palin likened herself to the biblical David taking on the mighty Goliath of American media, the New York Times newspaper.

The 58-year-old's appearance in a Manhattan courtroom this week was a far cry from her heyday on the campaign trail, whipping up crowds with incendiary rhetoric as a US vice-presidential candidate in 2008.