The Trump administration has helped a MAGA YouTuber who was exposed as a Kremlin shill return to the U.S. from her native Canada, despite her links to an alleged Russian influence operation.
Canadian influencer Lauren Chen was forced to leave the U.S. after her work authorization fell apart in the wake of a 2024 federal indictment alleging that Tenet Media, the YouTube network she founded, was bankrolled through a scheme connected to Kremlin-funded broadcaster RT.
After YouTube terminated Tenet Media’s channel and four other channels run by Chen, her social media presence disappeared in September 2024.
Then, on Sept. 4 this year, the married mom-of-two posted on Instagram about what had happened, denying Tenet media employees were “spies, propagandists, [or] traitors” and saying that no criminal charges had ever been filed against her.
Chen then announced on Christmas Day that she was back in the U.S., posting a selfie with her husband Liam Donovan and thanking State Department senior adviser Joe Rittenhouse. She credited Rittenhouse with “moving mountains to ensure we were able to return in time for the holidays,” as reported by The Bulwark, which said the Tenet case remains open.
She added: “Also the utmost gratitude to CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection], the new leadership at the FBI, and the administration for their help making this possible, and for everything they do to keep America safe. As we celebrate the birth of Christ, there is nowhere else I’d rather be than back here in Nashville 🇺🇲.”
Rittenhouse—whose X bio describes him as “Senior Advisor – Consular Affairs”—publicly embraced the shout-out, writing that he was “so happy to help correct the wrongs of the past administration.”
Rittenhouse’s post was met with incredulity and anger—even from MAGA supporters. “I’m MAGA, but this was a bad decision. This chick was basically a foreign agent for Russia pushing pay-to-play Putinist propaganda,” one wrote. Another poster said, “Thanks for letting foreign propagandists and traitors back into our country.”
The intervention is likely to sharpen questions about how Trump’s immigration crackdown is being applied, particularly as the administration ramps up enforcement against migrants, while also using visas as a political cudgel against perceived critics of the United States.
Last week, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio barred five European campaigners and watchdog leaders from entering the country under a new “free speech” visa policy.
It also raises questions about Trump’s friendly behavior toward Russia and its president Vladimir Putin. Even in the past month, Trump—who in 2022 called Putin a “genius”—has described Putin as being “very generous” about Ukraine’s future in a call they had about the war there, prompting visible disbelief from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump’s State Department has increasingly been populated with loyalists in roles that control who gets a visa and who gets turned away. Rittenhouse, for instance, is a former actor who became a Trump presidential campaign worker. Over Christmas, it also emerged that Trump had elevated Project 2025 contributor Mora Namdar to run the consular bureau overseeing visa approvals and revocations.
The Daily Beast has contacted the State Department, the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, the FBI, and Chen, for comment.
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