Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Congressional caucuses Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other Michael James Lindell (/lɪnˈdɛl/ lin-DEL;[4] born June 28, 1961),[5] also known as the My Pillow Guy and Mike Pillow,[6][7] is an American businessman, political activist, and conspiracy theorist.

[8][17][18] In the 1980s, Lindell launched and operated a number of small businesses, including carpet cleaning, lunch wagons, and a few bars and restaurants in Carver County, Minnesota.

[16][20] The Better Business Bureau (BBB) revoked accreditation of My Pillow in 2017, lowering its rating to an F based on a pattern of complaints by consumers.

"[21] Lindell named his son Darren as the company's chief operating officer in 2020, citing his own possible future political ambitions.

Lindell detailed plans for Vocl, an alt-tech social media platform that he had been developing for several months, in March 2021.

A reporter for Insider described FrankSocial as reminiscent of Facebook's design in 2012, with a basic news feed and no messaging function.

[37] During the early days of My Pillow, Lindell made donations to the Salvation Army[38] and Union Gospel Mission.

[43][44] In a speech at Liberty University in August 2019, Lindell said, "When I met with Donald Trump, it felt like a divine appointment, and when I walked out of that office I decided I was going to go all in.

[52] Lindell delivered a speech at the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference, in which he said that Trump was "the greatest president in history"[53] and had been "chosen by God".

[54][55] In a March 2020 appearance on Fox News, Lindell said that his company's bedding factories had been refocused on face mask production at the behest of the Trump administration.

"[56] Lindell had considered running for governor of Minnesota in 2022 against Democratic incumbent Tim Walz,[22][57] reportedly at Trump's urging.

[60][61] Lindell later said that he had donated to "The Fight Back Foundation Inc. to help fund election fraud litigation, among other things" and that reports that he had paid $50,000 for Rittenhouse's bail were "fake news".

In January and February 2021, Dominion warned Lindell that they planned to sue him, stating in their letter: "You have positioned yourself as a prominent leader of the ongoing misinformation campaign."

)[77][14] After Newsmax had broadcast a "clarification" of its false reporting on voting machine fraud in response to a demand letter from Dominion, followed by a defamation suit from a company executive,[78][79] Lindell appeared on the network on February 2, 2021, in an interview to discuss cancel culture but pivoted to repeating the false claims about rigged voting machines.

[80] On January 25, 2021, Twitter permanently banned Lindell for perpetuating the unsubstantiated claim that Trump won the 2020 election.

A Twitter spokesperson explained that Lindell violated the company's civic integrity policy implemented in September 2020 to fight disinformation.

[84] Lindell purchased three hours of airtime on One America News Network, which had also been threatened with legal action, to broadcast Absolute Proof, a documentary that makes false claims about the election, on February 5, 2021.

OANN broadcast a lengthy disclaimer before the program saying the claims were Lindell's alone but that the 2020 election results "remain disputed and questioned by millions of Americans".

[87][88] On April 20, 2021, Lindell published a second documentary titled Absolute Interference, which also promoted debunked conspiracy theories about the election and criticized the news media and communism.

[30][89] Dominion sent cease-and-desist letters to Lindell in December 2020 and January 2021 and asked him to retract his false claims about the company.

[101][102] In May 2022, the federal court dismissed all the claims by Lindell and MyPillow against Dominion, Smartmatic, and their lawyers and public relations firm.

After August 13 passed and President Joe Biden remained in office, Lindell moved his prediction for Trump's return to September 30, which also did not happen.

[106] Lindell held a three-day "Cyber Symposium" ending August 12, promising to present "irrefutable evidence" of election fraud, but none was produced.

[107][108] In connection with the Cyber Symposion, Lindell claimed a certain dataset showed Chinese interference in the 2020 election, and offered $5 million to anyone who could prove otherwise.

[109] This challenge was taken up by Robert Zeidman, a software developer who has been described as a Trump supporter and who claims to have thought the data was probably authentic because Lindell would not have offered a reward otherwise.

Zeidman concluded the data was not authentic and on April 20, 2023, a panel of AAA's Commercial Arbitration Tribunal ordered Lindell to pay the $5m.

[115][116] In January 2022, Lindell said that he possessed "enough evidence to put everybody in prison for life, 300-some million people" for their part in the alleged 2020 election fraud, which, at the time, was about 91 percent of the U.S.

[57] In January 2021, the Daily Mail published a story stating that Lindell had a nine-month relationship with actress Jane Krakowski between late 2019 and the summer of 2020.

[132][133][134][135] A federal court dismissed the suit in December 2021, ruling that Lindell had failed to identify any statements "that a reasonable person would view as defamatory.

"[136][137] In March 2021, Lindell said on The Domenick Nati Show that he was no longer living in Minnesota and was not attending in-person events over safety concerns.