*By Max Godnick*
Kanye West was slinging optimistic platitudes last month, courting conservative thought leaders, and increasing his public profile.
Could a trip to Iowa be next?
The rapper's recent Twitter activity has caused some pundits to speculate about his political ambitions.
In April, West expressed his "love" for President Trump and wore a "Make America Great Again" hat in [a photo](https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/989222392630202368). He said he "likes the way" the right-wing commentator Candace Owens thinks, and released a new song with the lyric: "I know Obama was heaven-sent, but ever since Trump won, it proved that I could be president."
West had teased a potential White House run in September 2015 at MTV's Video Music Awards, where he announced, "I have decided in 2020 to run for president."
Last week, he appeared to postpone his plan, cryptically tweeting ["2024"](https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/988984329295441921).
"I could see him trying," said Brande Victorian, the managing editor of MadameNoire, a Black women's lifestyle site. "I mean, we didn't think Trump would be here."
Republicans have embraced West's newly-public political musings. Donald Trump Jr. [tweeted a photo](https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/990930382685196288) Monday of West with Owens and the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Victorian said Tuesday in an interview with Cheddar she was skeptical that West could convince his fans to fully get behind conservatives.
"You're asking virtually everyone who the party does not care about to all of a sudden have empathy for this group, which is nonsensical," she said.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/will-kanye-west-run-for-president).
Data from a Slack Future Forum survey shows employees returning full-time to the office are not thrilled with their experience. Sheela Subramanian, vice [resident of the Future Forum, joined Cheddar News to talk about how worker satisfaction is worsening in returning to the office compared to those workers with flexible schedules. "Employers need to actually empower their teams to create team level agreements and also skill their managers to better lead distributed teams because everybody's work is different," Subramanian noted.
UPSIDE foods, a company that makes cultivated meat products, recently raised $400 million in a Series C round.
UPSIDE says it's developing a way to grow real meat, poultry, and seafood, without the need to raise animals for human consumption. It's a process that gets the attention of some big-name backers, including Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Dr. Uma Valeti, Founder and CEO of UPSIDE Foods, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Samantha Tan, professional racing driver and team owner of Samantha Tan Racing, joins Cheddar News to talk the motorsport community, being an ambassador for the AAPI Victory Alliance, and her mental health.
Hosts of the new MTV ]show "Help! I'm in a Secret Relationship," recording artist Travis Mills and actor Rahne Jones, joined Cheddar News to talk about the new show and how sheds light on romantic partners who are keeping their other halves hidden away from other parts of their lives. "Travis and I go in and we investigate and figure out what is going on in hopes that we can sit the two parties down and have a resolution, a conversation, a productive conversation, in hopes that the relationships remain intact," said Jones. "But unfortunately that does not happen all the time, which is where, where the drama, where the drama comes." Mills added that “I honestly think that the pandemic gave people who want to hide their partner a really good excuse."
Once called the rent-forever generation, Millennials are bucking the trend. But just as they age into their prime home-buying years, they’ve run up against a red hot housing market exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Cheddar News senior Reporter Chloe Aiello went to Hudson, N.Y., to learn more.
Every year on April 8th, we celebrate the deliciousness of empanadas for National Empanada Day! This time, Cheddar's News Wrap was joined by New York's own Empanada Mama to try some of interesting flavors.
The Biden administration is making changes to federal student loan programs, bringing more than 3.6 million people closer to debt forgiveness under the new rules, providing 40,000 with immediate debt cancellation, and allowing several thousand more with older loans to get some relief. Rob Franek, Editor-In-Chief of the Princeton Review, joined Cheddar News to break down how these changes might impact the lives of student loan borrowers and addresses some of the pushback against doing even more. "This is not a bankruptcy bailout of industries that are supporting the American economy," he said. These are for students right now who would otherwise be hobbled financially if they didn't experience some sort of forgiveness overall."
Emmanuel Macron staves off the far right challenger Marine Le Pen in France, conservative lawmakers find themselves embroiled in varying controversies, and pickleball is hotter than ever in the U.S.
