DES MOINES, Iowa — Vice President JD Vance was greeted warmly by Republicans in Iowa on Tuesday, with would-be caucus goers and strategists optimistically curious about his potential as a 2028 presidential contender.

But first, they’re hoping he can help turn the economy around.

Vance’s fate is unavoidably linked to President Donald Trump’s. He’ll either carry the mantle of Trump’s accomplishments all the way into his own term in the White House — or be dragged down by Trump’s dismal approval ratings, which have spiraled amid an unpopular war in Iran and voters’ economic pessimism.

During Vance’s first trip as vice president to the early caucus state — where he was campaigning for Republican Rep. Zach Nunn at a rally in a manufacturing warehouse in this battleground House district — Vance’s close ties with Trump were on full display. He credited the president repeatedly for tariffs, tax cuts and agriculture industry aid. And he avoided any mention of 2028.

But his association with Trump’s agenda presents a high-risk, high-reward proposition that could make or break his political future, operatives and rallygoers said.

“That’s the risk of being part of an administration,” Iowa GOP strategist David Kochel said. “This is the Kamala Harris problem.”

Rep. Randy Feenstra, who is running for governor, said in between shaking hands with attendees that Iowans “absolutely” associate Vance with Trump and expressed confidence that the White House can deliver outcomes that benefit the state.

“We’re all in this together,” he said. “We trust Trump and the vice president and what they’re doing, and things are going to be great.”

Republicans in Iowa are loath to turn their back on Trump, the 2024 caucus winner who remains deeply popular among the base. Faded Trump-Vance campaign signs still line the rural roads around the state, and Iowa Republicans said they remained largely optimistic that Trump, with Vance by his side, can steer the economy in the right direction.

In a brief post-rally interview, Nunn said part of the benefit of the vice president’s trip was allowing Iowa Republican officials to “share what they want to see out of the next leader in 2028.”

But Americans’ patience for the administration’s economic policy to have a positive effect is wearing thin. A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Sunday found 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy and 76 percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of cost of living issues. And even as Vance blamed former President Joe Biden’s administration for the teetering economy, an April POLITICO Poll found 46 percent of Americans feel Trump bears at least some responsibility for the state of the economy.

And the economic effects of Trump’s policies are particularly hard felt in Iowa’s vast agriculture industry. Trump’s tariff regime blocked off markets that had been reliable purchasers of U.S. agriculture goods, while the war in Iran has spiked the cost of diesel, which farmers depend on heavily.

Jake Chapman, a former president of the Iowa Senate who has advised multiple Republican presidential candidates in Iowa, said the conflict and the trade negotiations with other countries are top of mind for Iowa Republicans.

“A lot of people are thinking about foreign policy in particular, and how that impacts ag inputs and our agriculture economy,” he said.

In his speech, Vance acknowledged that the Trump administration hasn’t fully delivered on its economic promises. “We got a lot more work to do,” Vance told the crowd of hundreds. “We recognize that work. We’re excited about that work. That’s why you sent us to Washington, D.C.”

Still, those negative feelings towards Trump appear to be spilling over to Vance. That same poll found 48 percent of Americans disapprove of Vance — slightly worse than other senior Trump administration officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and fellow potential 2028 candidate Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rubio’s ascension in the 2028 shadow primary — both in the eyes of Americans and in standing with Trump’s inner circle — further complicates Vance’s path to the nomination. Eric Branstad, the son of former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and adviser to Trump’s three presidential campaigns in Iowa, said Vance’s portfolio may not resonate with Iowans as much as Rubio’s in an administration juggling multiple high-profile foreign conflicts.

“They’ve watched the secretary of state completely perform. He’s been put in all of the tough spots, and he has overperformed,” Branstad said. “The vice president is performing great. It’s just not been as noticeable as the secretary of state.”

Vance, however, has gotten an early start on building a campaign infrastructure, should he so choose to activate it. He has been a frequent surrogate and fundraiser for the GOP’s midterm operation and has campaigned for Republicans in battleground seats around the country. On Tuesday, he voted in Ohio’s competitive 1st District GOP primary and headlined a fundraiser in Oklahoma before travelling to Iowa.

“He’s the man who’s leading the charge to win the midterms,” Nunn said during his remarks.

Even as Vance stayed focused on this year’s elections on Tuesday, some Republicans are ready to look beyond the midterms. GOP gubernatorial candidate Adam Steen said on the outskirts of the rally he thinks Iowa Republicans are eager to organize around the next generation of party leadership.

“I don’t know why not just start talking about 2028,” Steen said. “We need to know who we’re going to be getting behind. And if they did that now, I don’t think it’d offend anybody. I think it’d be a great thing.”

The vice president’s office declined to comment on Vance’s thinking about a future presidential campaign.

Whether or not the vice president can carry the ideological torch for Trump’s political movement may depend on how closely Vance — or any 2028 hopeful — can align with Trump. Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann said at the rally he doesn’t believe the next Republican presidential nominee necessarily has to appeal directly to Trump’s base to be successful.

“The Republican Party is multifaceted,” Kaufmann said. “We have MAGA voters… We have Christian evangelicals, we have business, we have Libertarians. I think all of them together are going to unite around some of the basic principles that everybody shares.”

Yet being Trump’s vice president brings certain advantages with Republican voters. Even if Vance isn’t afforded the goodwill that brought the president a dominant wire-to-wire favorite in the 2024 Republican primaries, Kochel said Vance “gets one of the gold tickets” in the contest.

“[Vance] will be the front-runner going into any caucuses that we have here in Iowa,” GOP governor candidate and state Rep. Eddie Andrews said on the sidelines of Tuesday’s rally.

But Iowa caucusgoers are notoriously scrupulous when vetting future world leaders. And Nunn acknowledged that Vance will at some point need to forge his own path to leading the party.

“Nobody can walk in Donald Trump’s footsteps, because it’s Donald Trump,” Nunn said.

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DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 35

VORNADO CHIEF SLAMS MAMDANI: Billionaire real estate magnate Steve Roth is standing strong with fellow billionaire Ken Griffin in his spat with Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Instead of being singled out and scorned in viral videos, Roth, CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, thinks the ultra-rich should be “praised and thanked,” and said calls to tax them more are akin to some racial slurs.

“I must say that I consider the phrase tax the rich — quote tax the rich — when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs, and even the phrase ‘from the river to the sea,’” Roth said, referring to the controversial rallying cry used by pro-Palestinian activists, during a Tuesday earnings call.

Roth decried Mamdani’s social media video on the proposed pied-à-terre tax — in which the mayor used Griffin’s $238 million second-home as a backdrop — as “irresponsible and dangerous.” Griffin, CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, was offended by the video, and according to The Wall Street Journal, his chief operating officer suggested Citadel may pause its $6 billion plan to develop a Midtown office tower with Vornado and Rudin Management.

“We are all shocked that our young mayor would pull this stunt in front of Ken’s home and single him out for ridicule,” said Roth, who brought up the “blunder” unprompted before launching into a six-minute rant about the mayor.

On the planned office redevelopment at 350 Park Avenue, Roth said “it’s a good bet that we will go all in.” But he added that “this fence cannot be mended by a short, terse, insincere private apology.”

City Hall did not immediately return a request for comment. Mamdani ran on a pledge to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthiest New Yorkers, but Gov. Kathy Hochul has resisted that push — save for the pied-à-terre tax.

Griffin further blasted Mamdani at a conference Tuesday while voicing fears the video could spark political violence, noting the CEO of United Healthcare was “killed just a few blocks from my house.”

Roth on Tuesday stressed the significant contributions of the city’s wealthiest residents to its tax base and said these members of the so-called one-percent are “not enemies” and are “at the top of the great American economic pyramid for a reason.”

Roth, who donated generously to Mamdani’s opponent — former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — in last year’s election, went on to ponder: “Maybe we can draft Ken to become active and lead an effort to educate New York voters and to elect right-minded candidates.”

For now, he wants the city’s democratic socialist mayor — who, he allowed, is “young, smart and energetic” — to be friendlier to billionaires.

“What I beg my mayor to do is to begin every day being business-welcoming and business-friendly as his first priority,” Roth said. “That’s the only way to get the growth and financial wherewithal to accomplish his programs, some of which I must say are interesting and valid.” — Janaki Chadha

From the Capitol

CHECKING IN ON LAWLER LAND: The crowded and competitive Democratic primary to replace Republican Rep. Mike Lawler just got a pulse check — and the out-of-district military vet who’s wooed party insiders with her compelling biography has some ground to make up.

A new poll of likely Democratic primary voters commissioned by left-leaning underdog Effie Phillips-Staley shows Rockland County Legislator Beth Davidson leading the pack with 26 percent of the vote, an 11-point lead over Cait Conley, who served in the Army for 16 years and netted 15 percent of the vote. Still, 48 percent of those polled were undecided.

The poll was shared with Playbook and first reported in left-leaning outlet Zeteo. It was conducted by the left-leaning firm Data for Progress from April 17 to 24, about a week after former Briarcliff Manor Mayor Peter Chatzky dropped out of the race. The survey has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 5 percentage points, and respondents were quizzed online and via text.

“This Democratic primary clown car keeps producing surprises, but Conley’s flameout might be the biggest yet,” Lawler’s campaign manager Ciro Riccardi said in a statement to Playbook.

But beyond NY-17, the poll also provided some interesting tea leaves for Democrats weighing where to land on one of the most contentious issues ahead of the midterms: the conflict in the Middle East. Even in this suburban, heavily-Jewish congressional district outside New York City, Israel is increasingly unpopular with Democratic voters.

The poll found 44 percent of Democratic voters sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis, with 18 percent favoring the Jewish state. Twenty-three percent of respondents sympathized with both equally and 11 percent sympathized with neither.

And if that wasn’t surprising enough, Mamdani is so far not proving to be the political pain point for swing district Democrats that Republicans had hoped. In the hills of Rockland and Westchester counties, Mamdani has an 80 percent favorability rating with Democratic voters, with just 16 percent of respondents viewing him unfavorably, per the poll.

In the survey’s initial polling question on the primary, Phillips-Staley trailed behind Conley and Davidson at 8 percent. But after respondents were flooded with messaging on her opponents, Phillips-Staley’s support jumped to 31 points, just above .

The poll also tested negative messaging on Phillips-Staley, including the fact that she apparently “owns stocks in casino companies, defense contractors, and other industries that profit off the backs of working Americans,” according to one of the messages tested in the poll. — Jason Beeferman

NOT FONDA THIS IDEA: Actress and activist Jane Fonda is weighing into the politics of the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline.

The Williams Co. project, which was boosted by the Trump administration last month during a ceremonial groundbreaking event, would deliver fracked gas from Pennsylvania to New York City and Long Island. Despite rejecting water quality permits for the project in prior years, both New York and New Jersey awarded those permits last November, sparking ire from environmentalists. Advocacy groups sued both states over the about-face.

On Wednesday, the New Jersey Tidelands Resource Council will consider awarding a permit to the pipeline project. It is unclear what the project’s fate will be if the council does not approve the permit.

“You have the opportunity to exercise leadership on this issue that will resonate all over the United States,” Fonda wrote in a letter to Sherrill this week.

“If the pipeline is rejected by the Tidelands Resource Council, that rejection will be a giant victory for New Jersey’s environment and the world’s climate,” the letter later added.

A spokesperson for Sherrill declined to comment on the letter.

While Sherrill, like Hochul, supports an all-of-the-above approach to energy policy, Hochul has cited affordability concerns in her defense of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s decision to issue the water quality certification, arguing that she needs to “govern in reality” amid skyrocketing bills and the Trump administration’s antipathy to renewables.

Sherrill, while also focused on affordability, is in a tough spot as the pipeline would not deliver any energy to New Jersey. She has not weighed in on the project since taking office, but she criticized the pipeline while she was governor-elect for doing “nothing to lower electric bills for New Jersey residents.” — Mona Zhang

FROM CITY HALL

IT’S IN THE BAG: Carl Wilson was officially crowned the winner of a high-stakes City Council race today after ranked-choice tabulations put him more than 2,000 votes ahead of Lindsey Boylan, his closest competitor whose defeat is seen as a black eye for Mamdani.

Wilson’s victory was already all but certain after Election Day on April 28, as he trounced Boylan by a wide margin in early ballot returns.

But since no candidate secured a simple majority in the April 28 results, the city Board of Elections needed to run ranked-choice tallies.

Those tabulations, released by the board this afternoon, show Wilson won after three rounds of ranked choice tallying with 7,863 ballots, or 59.4 percent of the vote total.

That put him well ahead of Boylan, who netted 5,373 ballots, or 40.6 percent of the vote total, the ranked-choice tallies show. The other two candidates in the special election for the 3rd Council District, Layla Law-Gisiko and Leslie Boghosian Murphy, were eliminated in the third and second ranked-choice rounds, respectively.

“This victory belongs to all of us,” Wilson said in a statement after the release of the ranked-choice results. “From the start, this was a true grassroots effort powered by neighbors, volunteers, unions and supporters who showed up day after day. We build something real together, and these results reflect that.”

Last week’s special election was called because former Council Member Erik Bottcher, who used to count Wilson as his Council chief of staff, vacated his seat after being elected to the state Senate in February.

After initially being seen as a shoo-in for Wilson, the race was scrambled in mid-April when Mamdani endorsed Boylan, a onetime adviser to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo who became the first woman to accuse him of sexual misconduct in 2020 (Cuomo has denied the accusations). Mamdani’s move made the race the first true test of his endorsement power since his inauguration and created a proxy war between him and more moderate Democrats backing Wilson, including Council Speaker Julie Menin.

Read the story from Chris Sommerfeldt in POLITICO Pro. 

ACCESS DENIED: The city’s Department of Investigation released a report today outlining several ways its oversight of the Administration for Children’s Services is stymied by both state law and a state agency, leaving the municipal watchdog unable to properly probe some of the most sensitive work done in government.

The problem is twofold.

First, a provision in state law prohibits investigators from accessing ACS records of unfounded accusations of child abuse or maltreatment. A second provision ices out the department if a case is put into a deferral program that avoids a full-blown investigation of a caretaker.

Often, that is the very information investigators need to draw a conclusion in instances where children are harmed.

“If there is a history of unfounded investigations by ACS, we’re unable to go back and look and see: Were these investigations conducted properly? Was there some misconduct? Was there a home visit that a caseworker said they did but never actually did?” DOI’s newly installed commissioner, Nadia Shihata, said in an interview. “We can’t look into it because we can’t even access the records.”

The rules can have tragic consequences: In 2025, DOI was prohibited from accessing the full case history in 17 out of 18 child deaths it was notified of. In 2024, it was denied full records in 13 out of 16 child fatalities. And the year before that, the same thing happened in 19 out of 25 cases, according to the department.

The state Office of Child and Family Services at times can present its own roadblocks. State law requires DOI to obtain authorization from that office before receiving nearly any type of record relating to children who have encountered ACS, placing a drag on inquiries. And DOI has found the state office often goes above and beyond what the statutes lay out, excessively delaying or limiting records in a way that limits DOI’s ability to investigate potential shortfalls in city service delivery.

“What we want to look into affects the most vulnerable children in the city,” said Shihata, who noted the department is supporting state legislation that would alter the rules and allow DOI more access. “It’s frustrating.”

The state countered that limitations on data sharing exist to protect the children involved but that it cooperates with DOI to the extent it can. Spokesperson Daniel Marans noted investigators are entitled to full records in criminal cases via law enforcement bodies and can obtain unredacted files with permission from the affected family.

“OCFS is deeply committed to the wellbeing of children and families and takes seriously its obligation under New York State law to protect the identities of children experiencing abuse and maltreatment or institutionalization,” Marans said in a statement. — Joe Anuta

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Progressive organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier is homing in on Spanish-speaking voters as she vies to unseat Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat in next month’s primary.

Avila Chevalier’s campaign is going up with its first broadcast ad of the primary, backed by an initial buy of more than $165,000. The Spanish-language spot leans into an issue that Democrats have been using in primaries across the country to activate their base: Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In the spot, Avila Chevalier touts her work to release people detained by ICE, and vows to abolish the agency in Congress. She also takes a swipe at Espaillat, whom she claims aided President Donald Trump by funding ICE — a reference to votes he took in line with many other Democrats approving DHS funding.

During the latest DHS funding standoff, Espaillat was adamant about not providing funding for immigration enforcement without guardrails.

Hispanic residents make up around half of Espaillat’s district, which covers parts of Manhattan and the Bronx, according to Census data. The five-term incumbent is chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Avila Chevalier, who is backed by the city chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, is running to Espaillat’s left and looking to harness the progressive energy that got Mamdani elected last year. The mayor has not endorsed in this race. — Madison Fernandez

IN OTHER NEWS

— ‘NOT MY BOSS’: Brooklyn police captain James Wilson has been transferred following a video capturing him trashing Mamdani at the scene of anti-immigration enforcement protests. (Gothamist)

— JUDGE OF CHARACTER: The opaque, party-controlled and patronage-driven system that selects and assigns New York City judges raises concerns about accountability and persistent abuses. (Hell Gate)

— GETTING SQUEEZED: New York’s budget woes are forcing upstate cities to implement government layoffs and service cuts as officials say state and federal funding are not meeting rising costs. (Syracuse.com)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

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4 min read4 min

We must not let what could be a landmark piece of legislation be a missed opportunity.

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Last month, I spoke at the launch of Emmaus UK’s Rebuilding Lives report – peer-led research carried out with, and by, people who have experienced homelessness and now live in supported housing. Their testimony was powerful and timely: this is a high-stakes moment for supported housing, and one we must get right.

Supported housing is perhaps easy to overlook until you hear about its impact from the people who know best. At the launch, I heard directly from residents about what it means to them: a stable base from which to rebuild, a sense of purpose, community, and belonging. One resident described how the work opportunities and activities at their Emmaus community had transformed their mental health in ways that simply having a roof over their head never could. That is what good supported housing does. It helps people to heal, recover, and rebuild their lives.

The Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act is introducing the most significant reform to this sector in a generation – new national standards, a licensing regime, and changes to Housing Benefit. At the same time, rough sleeping is at record levels, one in three supported housing providers closed schemes last year due to funding pressures, and thousands of people are trapped in temporary accommodation with nowhere suitable to move on to.

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This is a critical moment for supported housing that has the potential to safeguard the delivery of quality provision for generations to come – but only if we can get implementation right.

There has been welcome progress. The government has just published its long-awaited consultation response on implementing the Act, which shows that some genuinely important concerns have been listened to.

The scheme definition has been amended so that dispersed housing providers won’t face a separate licence application for each postal address. The list of exemptions for providers already regulated elsewhere has been expanded. Local authorities have lost the ability to impose discretionary licensing conditions, preventing a damaging postcode lottery of requirements. And the ‘local need’ standard has been clarified to exclude local connection tests – which, as the Rebuilding Lives report highlights, can actively block access to support for people who need it most.

However, some notable gaps remain, and if left unaddressed, they risk turning a landmark piece of legislation into a missed opportunity. Residents and providers are both clear that good quality supported housing is about much more than just a roof over someone’s head. Yet the national standards still do not fully reflect what drives recovery: purposeful activity, community, and flexibility of stay.

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The two-year intended duration for transitional accommodation risks being read as a fixed ceiling rather than a guide. There is still no standardised methodology for local needs assessments, or a nationally set licence fee rate for providers to pay. And cost-cutting motivations could still permeate local licensing decisions, particularly with local authorities facing a continued subsidy loss when reclaiming Housing Benefit from national government for supported housing providers who are non-registered. These areas need addressing to achieve a fair, consistent, and person-centred system.

Another glaring omission is funding. With many supported housing providers already under financial pressure, layering new compliance burdens on a sector with no transitional support is a serious risk. Providers may be forced to divert resources away from frontline support simply to evidence that they are delivering frontline support.

On resident protection, the government has confirmed a three-month improvement period before licence refusal. This is welcome, but only half the six months organisations, including Emmaus UK, called for. Guidance will be issued on re-housing residents where schemes close, but guidance alone does not guarantee outcomes. For people who have experienced homelessness, the statutory rehousing duty may not apply. Without robust safeguards, licence refusal could lead to homelessness, which would be a tragic unintended consequence of the Act.

And none of this works without affordable homes for residents to move on to after supported housing: an average gap of £200 a month between local housing allowance and median private rents traps people in supported housing long after they are ready to leave, while we urgently need to work toward 90,000 social homes built per year.

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The message from residents and providers is clear: we know what good quality supported housing looks like. The government has the foundations in place – now it needs to go further.

 

Paula Barker is the Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ending Homelessness

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Today, nearly 50 Parliamentary constituencies have no bank branch left (Alamy)

3 min read4 min

Since 2015, more than 6,600 bank branches have closed, with some communities losing over 90 per cent of their network. Today, nearly 50 Parliamentary constituencies have no bank branch left, and more than 90 are down to their last one.

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For many people, that is not just an inconvenience. It has meant losing the ability to bank at all. In coastal and rural communities such as Hayling Island or towns like Emsworth in my Havant constituency, the reality is straightforward: if you cannot bank online and cannot easily travel elsewhere, you are effectively cut off.

The last Conservative government took an effective and important step in response. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 legally mandated access to cash and supported the rollout of banking hubs, a single shared space where multiple banks operate on a rota basis. That was a good start and is already making a big difference. LINK, the organisation responsible for assessing local provision of hubs, has already carried out more than 1,600 community assessments, leading to 276 banking hubs being recommended and delivered.

But the current framework does not go far enough. It defines the problem too narrowly – solely around access to cash. But this is not the same as access to face-to-face banking.

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Being able to withdraw or deposit money is only part of what people need. Banking is also about resolving a blocked card, fixing a failed payment, getting help after fraud, or simply speaking to someone when something has gone wrong. All of these are everyday problems raised by constituents to their MPs from across the House.

In particular, there are now over three million cases of banking and payment fraud each year, and the majority begin online. When something does go wrong, being able to speak to someone face-to-face can make the difference between stopping fraud early and losing life savings.

According to the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Lives Survey, 3.3m people in the UK do not use online banking. More broadly, a significant minority still relies on physical services, particularly older people, small business owners, people living in rural, suburban and coastal communities, and those who are less digitally confident.

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The current rules do not fully reflect this. Under the existing framework, communities are often judged to have sufficient banking provision (and therefore won’t get a banking hub) if there is access to cash – for example, a Post Office or ATM within one kilometre of the high street – despite no access to wider in-person banking services.

As a result, some communities still fall through the cracks: they have access to cash, but not wider banking services. This is not a failure of the model. Banking hubs are working. Instead, it’s a gap in the design, which now needs to be closed.

That’s why I introduced the In-Person Banking Services Bill before Parliament prorogued. It built on the existing framework by ensuring that access to face-to-face banking services, not just access to cash, were put on a statutory footing for the first time. I hope the government will support my Bill – or its aims – in the new session of Parliament, for example via the next Financial Services Bill.

This is not about reversing progress or resisting digital innovation. Online banking works well for many and will continue to do so. But a modern financial system must work for all its users. That means ensuring that those who need in-person support are not left behind as the system evolves.

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Securing access to cash was an important first step – and a Conservative success story. Now we need to ensure that people can access in-person banking – reliably, locally, and when they need it. Because no one should be excluded from managing their own money simply because they cannot do it online.

Alan Mak is Conservative MP for the Havant Constituency and a former Treasury minister

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US actor Conrad Ricamora has spoken out after his character in The Devil Wears Prada 2 was completely cut from the final film.

The How To Get Away With Murder star was originally supposed to play the roommate of Anne Hathaway’s Andy in the new sequel, which arrived in cinemas last week.

In the lead-up to the release, Variety reported that all of Conrad’s scenes had been cut, citing “sources” who claimed that test audiences were not sold on his character, or why Andy would have needed a roommate at the stage of her life that she was at.

Conrad later confirmed this to be the case, posting pictures of himself and his Oscar-winning co-star on set on Instagram.

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“Just like the rest of you, I can’t wait to see The Devil Wears Prada 2 this weekend,” he enthused.

“Filming The Devil Wears Prada 2 was one of the best working experiences of my life. Getting to work with the icon Anne Hathaway and the genius [Aline Brosh McKenna, the screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada and its sequel] all the while being directed by the steady hand of David Frankel will forever be on the highlight reel of my life.”

“However, in the end, my character didn’t make sense in the grand scheme of the film (something about me being too sexy and hott and my muscles being too big… story of my life),” he joked.

Though Conrad’s scenes were eventually scrapped, there is a nod to him left in The Devil Wears Prada.

In Andy’s apartment, merchandise for the hit play Oh Mary! can be seen, in which Conrad originating the role of Abraham Lincoln, earning him a Tony nomination.

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Meanwhile, an extended scene featuring Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney was also revealed to have been axed in the lead-up to The Devil Wears Prada 2’s release.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is in cinemas now. Read HuffPost UK’s review of the film here.

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Let’s get this out of the way: no, I am not as good at reviewing sticky toffee puddings as STP Reviews. I have neither the expertise nor the drive to assess 60+ of the cakes, and certainly have not refined a marking system so good it’s earned me tens of thousands of fans.

But I do like the dessert, and I’m generally strict about baked goods (woe betide anyone who gets me started on fudgy vs cakey “brownies”). I demand plenty of glossy, rich, buttery sauce, a moist sponge, and a molasses-y mass of dates.

Which might lead some to wonder why I tried a microwave STP recipe last week. All I can say is that it was late, the recipe had hundreds of five-star reviews, and I craved it. Even Nigella has “emergency” baked goods for such urgent cases.

How do you make a microwave sticky toffee pudding?

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I followed the New York Times’ recipe. It starts with a mug of melted butter, to which you add brown sugar, salt, and cream before zapping for 30-second increments: that’s your caramel sauce.

Mine took me about a minute. It’s important to really thoroughly stir the sauce between microwave sessions, or else it could become gritty and split.

The recipe asked for dates, butter, cream, and baking soda to be mixed in a bowl next. I microwaved these before mashing them; the dates turn into an earthy-smelling puree remarkably quickly.

(Side note: they make a great caramel if you’re ever in a bind or can’t have dairy).

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Then, add flour, cinnamon, sugar, and salt, and microwave the lot for about 45 seconds.

Pour the thickened sauce over the cake, add cream if you like (I do), and you’re done!

The final verdict

I was impressed by how quickly the whole job was done. It took me 10 minutes, as promised. The process is both easy and gloopily satisfying (the dates in particular were fun to make).

It’s not gorgeous to look at, but come on: who cares? This is a 10 pm, over-the-kitchen-sink eat if ever I saw one.

The standout is the caramel sauce. The recipe authors said it’d thicken as the cake cooked, which it did; by the end, it was velvety, thick and smooth. If you’re ever in a dessert-mergency, I do recommend making that sauce and smothering anything vaguely cake-y in it.

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That said, I don’t believe the sponge in an STP should be relegated to the role of sauce carrier, and this one felt that way. The cake was a little rubbery and dry; its crumb was indistinct and far from tender. Still, nobody else said that in the comments, so maybe I left mine in too long.

Regardless, for ten minutes and a microwave, I was pretty wowed. It hit a lot of the marks of a great sticky toffee pudding (luxurious sauce, date-y stickiness, and rich butter flavour), and it more than exceeded my expectations.

It’s not going to score highly on a pro’s account, I reckon. But when you’re in a rush and/or have a craving, its value rockets to at least an 8/10. Reviewers have given it five stars for good reason.

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