# Lauren Chen

Lauren Chen (born Lauren Yu Sum Tam) is a Hong Kong-Canadian conservative political commentator and former YouTube personality. She has been involved with Glenn Beck's BlazeTV and Turning Point USA and has contributed opinion pieces to RT, a Russian state media outlet. Her husband, Liam Donovan, was president of the now-defunct Tenet Media, a company they co-founded.

## Early life and education

Lauren Yu Sum Tam was born in Quebec, Canada, and spent much of her childhood in Hong Kong. She has lived in Shanghai, Singapore, and London. Chen attended the University of Southern California and Brigham Young University, where she studied political science and screenwriting. On December 2014, Chen graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with summa cum laude honors.

## Career

Chen began her online career in 2016, using the moniker "Roaming Millennial" on YouTube. Her videos focused on various political and social issues from a conservative viewpoint, including critiques of immigration, LGBTQ+ rights and feminism. These views helped her gain a significant following among conservative audiences.
Throughout her rise in the conservative media sphere, Chen's platform facilitated connections with both mainstream conservative figures and more controversial individuals. In 2017, she interviewed Richard Spencer, a white supremacist and prominent figure in the alt-right movement, though she publicly distanced herself from his white nationalist views. By positioning herself as a more moderate voice while engaging with controversial figures, she became a bridge between mainstream conservatism and the far-right online ecosystem.
On December 5, 2017, Chen's company was incorporated.
By 2019, Chen had accumulated over 400,000 subscribers on her (now-suspended) YouTube channel and continued to expand her presence. She became a contributor to CRTV, which later merged with Glenn Beck's TheBlaze, where she hosted her own show, Pseudo-Intellectual. She contributed to Turning Point USA, an American conservative nonprofit organization.
In 2021, she began contributing op-eds to RT, a Russian state media outlet, publishing articles with headlines such as "America’s 'white supremacy' is a myth" and "If you’re American and oppose war with Russia, expect to be smeared as unpatriotic." According to a federal indictment, Chen, identified as "Founder-1," was allegedly compensated by RT to create and publish over two hundred videos on her personal YouTube channel without disclosing the source of funding.

## Tenet Media and alleged Russian connections

On January 19, 2022, Chen co-founded Tenet Media with her husband, Liam Donovan. In January 2023, Chen allegedly received a contract from RT to recruit other commentators for Tenet Media as part of the former's efforts to influence U.S. public opinion. Chen recruited conservative or conservative-adjacent commentators Matt Christiansen, Tayler Hansen, Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern to be a part of the Tenet Media network. Despite her role at Tenet, her name did not appear on the company’s website, nor did she publicly associate her title with the organization on social media.
During this period, Chen made public statements that aligned her with fringe and extremist voices. She expressed support for white supremacist streamer Nick Fuentes's anti-Israel stance on the Israel–Hamas war and criticized U.S. support for Ukraine. For instance, she suggested that former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley should "move to Ukraine and run for its presidency." These positions contributed to a decline in support from some of her previous mainstream conservative audience.

### United States federal indictment

A federal indictment unsealed in September 2024 accused Tenet Media of receiving funding and direction from a covert operation funded by Russia to disseminate pro-Russian propaganda within the United States. The indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleged that Russian state-controlled media company RT funneled nearly $10 million to Tenet Media to create and distribute content favorable to Russian interests, aimed at amplifying U.S. domestic divisions. The indictment specifically named Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, employees of RT, as the main operatives behind the funding.
The Justice Department said that Tenet Media, referred to as "US Company 1" in the indictment, produced numerous videos that supported Russia's geopolitical aims and received significant views on platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok. These activities were part of broader Russian efforts to influence U.S. public opinion ahead of the 2024 elections. Although the indictment suggested that not all individuals affiliated with Tenet were aware of the source of funding, it highlighted that founders, including Chen, were cognizant of their financial backers and actively concealed this information.
The indictment was revealing: "The unsealed indictment said the founders of the unidentified company — widely reported to be Tenet Media — knew their funding came from 'the Russians.'" It alleges the Tenet founders masked their Russian funding by creating a fictitious persona of a wealthy European sponsor, "Eduard Grigoriann." The charged Russian nationals, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, were involved in day-to-day operations of Tenet by fall 2023, using false names to conceal they were Russian RT employees. The indictment alleges the founders acknowledged in private communications that their "investors" were actually the "Russians."
Attorney general Merrick Garland said Tenet "never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government." Prosecutors also allege the $10 million was a Russian money laundering operation.

### Canadian government reaction

On September 10, five Canadian members of parliament issued a letter calling for Chen to testify before a Canadian parliamentary committee.
After being summoned, Chen appeared with counsel during the hearing on November 5, 2024, and refused to answer any questions, citing the American criminal investigation. This prompted the committee, comprising MPs from all parties, to unanimously vote to send the matter to the House of Commons as a potential contempt of parliament case.

### Response and public statements

Following the indictment's public release, Tenet Media and the involved commentators, including Chen, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. As of September 6, two days after the indictment was revealed publicly, Chen had not posted on social media since the indictment.
In response to the indictment, BlazeTV officially fired her. Her Turning Point USA profile was also removed. Her channels, as well as that of Tenet Media, were taken down by YouTube. Tenet Media has since been shuttered.