THE MAYOR OF THE MANOSPHERE

Chris Pavlovski, the Canadian founder of the video platform Rumble, helped bring MAGA back to the White House. What will he do now that the fringe has become the mainstream?

- CAITLIN WALSH MILLER

ON THE MORNING of February 12, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt presented to reporters a whirlwind update on President Trump's fourth week in office: calls with Putin and Zelenskyy, new tariffs on aluminum and steel, an executive order to unleash DOGE on the federal workforce and, finally, a ban on the government procurement of paper straws. Then she opened the floor to the media. The first question at morning press briefings has traditionally gone to the Associated Press. But AP was in the administration's bad books for refusing to adopt the term “Gulf of America.” So, instead, Leavitt gestured to the White House’s “New Media Seat”—a recent invention of hers that has typically been occupied by right-wing news outlets, like Breitbart and the Daily Wire, and independent journalists like Sage Steele, a former ESPN anchor turned anti-woke crusader.

On that day it was held by Chris Pavlovski, an entrepreneur from Brampton, Ontario, and the founder of Rumble, a video-hosting platform that has become a clearing house for MAGA-affiliated personalities, conspiracy theorists and culture-war influencers. Leavitt thanked Pavlovski for creating a space for such creators—including the president himself—to share their opinions without being censored by mainstream Big Tech platforms.

Slouching in a suit and tie, Pavlovski thanked Leavitt and the president for providing him a forum to defend free speech and complained of being censored by “foreign governments”—an accusation he has also levied against Canada in the past. Then he served up a soft lob: “Can you describe what the administration will do to protect U.S. interests and values worldwide?”