Pillows and Madness
Give grifters access to the White House, and you'll end up with no good. Exhibit A: The MyPillow guy.
I almost didn’t write this story. I mean, does a guy who sells pillows and devotes large amounts of his time and money spreading disinformation really deserve to be spotlighted for his impact on the American body politic? Sadly, yes, he does.
It’s tragically laughable to recall when the Republican candidate who lived in a tower and played a serious businessman on TV promised to surround himself with “the best and most serious people” if he became president. This piece could go on and on displaying how ridiculous that claim was—and yes, a list of those “best” people and their crimes may be a coming attraction—but the MyPillow guy Mike Lindell offers a rich illustration of the kind of operators who have advised the man who sat in our Oval Office and who have continued to cheerlead for the stolen election lie and the overthrow of our government.
This reality took on extra significance earlier this week when the FBI, armed with a search warrant, seized Lindell’s cell phone at a Hardee’s drive-through line in Minnesota. Lindell called the seizure “disgusting” and underscored that he relies on his phone for “everything.”
His beloved and increasingly paranoid hero Donald Trump was even more horrified, asserting that this legal event indicated that America is now a “Weaponized Police State,” that “Our Country is a laughing stock all over the World” and the “majesty of the United States is gone.” No, he didn’t grasp his role in turning the US into a laughing stock or stripping away its majesty.
Fact is, his ongoing involvement with the self-confessed former crack cocaine, gambling addict, evangelical Christian and pillow salesman offers one of the clearer examples that the man who occupied our Oval Office had abandoned any notion that governance requires serious expertise and good governance requires understanding of the functions of government. The reliance on the MyPillow guy—a ridiculous reality that has asked us to accept how absurd the political world has become—was a continuous reminder that Trump’s goals had little to do with the actual duties of the office.
Don’t just take my word for it. Listen to Lindell himself, whose likely appeal to Trump emanates from the fact that his infomercials have been aired millions of times, particularly on Fox. He’s reportedly made $300 million in pillow sales and he’s a fanatical Trump supporter. Clearly, his appeal is not his knowledge. Lindell: “I had to learn what a liberal was, what a conservative was. I didn’t know anything about politics. I’m not kidding. I was an addict, I was a crackhead. I didn’t get into politics and I didn’t realize how important they were.”
Lindell met nominee Trump in 2016 at Trump Tower. “I just believed in Donald Trump so much after that meeting with him,” Lindell said later. Savoring the proximity to power and the spotlight that helped him sell pillows to the MAGA crowd—including marketing at the Jan. 6 rally—Lindell was ready to do whatever he could to help Trump stay in power, including and particularly spreading the Big Lie of election fraud.
Consider a few snapshots:
Little more than a week after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and a little less than a week before Trump was evicted, Lindell met Trump and White House lawyers reportedly to share six pages of materials filled with unproven conspiracies, including the insistence that China helped Joe Biden steal the election. Lindell was photographed exiting the White House holding notes that referenced the Insurrection Act that could enable a president to enact martial law and deploy the military in the streets.
In the month after the insurrection, Lindell was the target of a $1.3 billion Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit for spreading false information that its voting machines were rigged and exploiting the lies to advertise to those who believed in the election conspiracy theories. "Lindell—a talented salesman and former professional card counter—sells the lie to this day because the lie sells pillows,” Dominion’s complaint asserted. “MyPillow's defamatory marketing campaign—with promo codes like 'FightforTrump,' '45,' 'Proof,' and 'QAnon'—has increased MyPillow sales by 30-40% and continues duping people into redirecting their election-lie outrage into pillow purchases.”
Last year Lindell helped fund the legal defense of Tina Peters, the clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, who was indicted on seven felony counts for her alleged role in copying election software from county voting machines in an effort to prove the election was stolen. Federal agents who seized Lindell’s phone asked him about his ties to Peters, who’s facing charges of identity theft and criminal impersonation, among others.
While information on Peters may be a key reason the FBI interrupted the pillow guy’s fast food breakfast and took his phone, don’t doubt they’ll find plenty of other useful info from this busy texter who’s not much interested in facts. “I do everything off my phone,” said Lindell, noting that he doesn’t own a computer.
And if you need any more reason to explain why he and Trump hit it off? Since the seizure, Lindell not only insisted he would not be intimidated, he’s used the episode to urge his followers to “fight back.” And how might they do so? He told them to buy more of his pillows.
Grifters of the world unite.
As for the breaking news about Judge Aileen Cannon’s reckless decision Thursday, I offer this for now:
Not yet a paid subscriber? Become one for just $50 a year or $5 a month and join the conversation.
Steven, at 79 I surely thought I'd seen and heard just about everything, ever weird fantasy and tsunami of lies surging through our country, our society. Nope, each day presents another glimpse of madness at state, local and national levels. I have asked brilliant attorneys, former top military analysts, government leaders what can be done to protect our democracy, our governance, our country. Answers are many, yet few that might work, it seems. I cannot give up on our country, imperfect though it is and always has been. I am just an ordinary American, a veteran, and a believer in "first do no harm" to your fellow citizens. I vote. I live a simple, not flamboyant life. I am tired, so tired, and I worry about America's youth, and what their tomorrow will offer.
trump is a self aggrandizing, cruel, ignorant, loud mouth who thinks the world is about him. Everything he is involved with is the best/worst thing that has ever happened in the history of the United States.He had no plans to defeat covid, no in 2 weeks health plan, no regard for our allies, no ideas about alleviating the needs of the needy. His only "thing" was to build the beautiful wall that nobody wanted, and even that was not his idea. I think he is a sissy braggart who is mentally declining, not by the day but the hour. He exclaimed that North Korea would feel "fire and fury" as has never been seen by the world, yet months later, he and Kim were shaking hands and pen pals. He said he would paint our planes to look like they were Chinese and bomb Russia because of Ukraine, but he would never do that to his mentor, Putin, knowing poison might be found in his underwear.
My question is what is the matter with 40% of Americans who follow him? Why?What would make Americans, perhaps the luckiest people in the world to be living in a free constitutional country, speak with reverence about him, do his bidding that would destroy their world?What is wrong with the media that keeps propping him up daily with his picture, utterances and even bathroom problems which in fact, promote him? What was with those who worked with him but are now trying to save their own skin? Why did they not speak out? Tillerson, Dr. Birx, Barr and the generals- Kelly, McMaster,. Mattis all upset with Obama's foreign policies. It was left up to Lt.Col. Alexander Vindman to blow the whistle.
trump's fine people have either been indicted, jailed, or pardoned plus Jared Kushner. His advisors were a disgraced Flynn and nightly calls from Hannity, degreed in nothiing. What is left today?QAnon crazies who have convinced him that the Democrat pedophile dark money people are after him, Bannon, Jones, and of course a man whose head must be stuffed with feathers, My Pillow Guy, Mike Lindell,who I think really is a gullible trump believer while at the same time, raking in the dough.
Does it all go back to our pretty poor (and getting "poorer') educational system? Few people will ever use geometry but a class in logic might help. The periodic chart fine for future scientists, but what does that do for a fast food worker of a shoe salesman? But classes in tolerance, kindness and various cultures might help.
There will always be trumps and Lindells, but they should not make up 40% of Americans.