Donald Trump has thrown his support behind Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder known for his relentless claims about election fraud and his publicly discussed past struggle with crack cocaine addiction, jolting an already competitive Republican primary in Minnesota.
Lindell will now head into the August 11 contest with one of the most prized endorsements in GOP politics, after Trump hailed him as “one of America’s greatest and most hard working Patriots.”
The former president’s backing caught Lindell’s Republican opponents off guard, particularly Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth and retired healthcare executive Kendall Qualls, who had been viewed as the leading contenders while Lindell lagged behind in polling.
Whoever emerges from the Republican primary is expected to take on Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar in November for the seat being left open by Tim Walz, the Democrats’ unsuccessful 2024 vice presidential nominee.
“Mike will be SPECTACULAR!!! He truly loves Minnesota, as do I, and wants to bring it back from oblivion and embarrassment. He can do it!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to Lindell by his familiar nickname, the “Pillow Man.”
Trump went on to argue that “nobody has sacrificed more than Mike Lindell in fighting for our country, especially when it comes to Election Integrity,” before ending his post with an emphatic endorsement in capital letters: “MIKE LINDELL HAS MY COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT – HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN.”
Still, Lindell faces a steep political challenge. A June poll showed him trailing Klobuchar 53 percent to 36 percent, the weakest general-election performance among the three Republicans, in a state that has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1972.
His path was already complicated in May, when Republican delegates declined to back him at the state convention and instead awarded the party endorsement to Demuth.
MyPillow founder Mike Lindell poses with people in the crowd as they join thousands of supporters of United States President Donald J. Trump filling the streets in front of the United States Supreme Court and the grounds of the US Capitol, following a pro-Trump MAGA rally and march in Washington, DC
Donald Trump speaks with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi (not pictured) during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, July 14
State GOP chairman Alex Plechash said the Republican leadership was ‘surprised by President Trump’s endorsement of Mike Lindell.’
‘These are serious times, and they demand serious, disciplined leadership,’ Plechash said in a statement. ‘Minnesota needs a governor who can unite Republicans, earn the support of independent voters, and defeat Amy Klobuchar.’
Lindell has been a fixture in Trump World since 2016, when a half-hour meeting with the candidate ended with Melania requesting pillows that he dispatched overnight from his Minnesota factory.
Trump’s endorsement marks an extraordinary turnaround for the entrepreneur whose life came crashing down in 2008 as he grappled with a crippling crack cocaine addiction.
Lindell has said he once went two weeks without sleep during a bender so severe his own dealers refused to sell to him, with one photographing his ravaged face as a warning. His marriage collapsed and he lost his house.
He got sober in January 2009 after, he says, a single prayer, and built MyPillow into an infomercial juggernaut claiming 30 million pillows sold.
Lindell soared to national notoriety after Trump’s 2020 defeat to Joe Biden, claiming the vote had been rigged through corrupted voting machines.
His crusade placed Fox News in a quandary, with MyPillow commercials blanketing the channel at a rate Lindell put at $1 million a week.
The network yanked his ads in January 2024, citing an unpaid $7.8 million bill. Lindell claimed Fox was trying to silence him ‘because I want to secure our election platforms’, which the network denied.
Fox had its own reckoning over election falsehoods, paying Dominion nearly $800 million in 2023 to avert a defamation trial, one of several voting technology firms Lindell also targeted.
Lindell’s claims cost him dearly as major retailers dropped MyPillow, rival voting company Smartmatic won summary judgment against him last September and he was found liable for defaming a former Dominion executive last summer.
Dominion’s successor company agreed to drop its long-running $1.3 billion suit against Lindell and MyPillow earlier this month.
Lindell was jubilant on Wednesday after the Trump endorsement. ‘My mind is just rolling because I’m so excited,’ he said, adding: ‘There’s so much hope, and now it’s just … to a whole new level.’
Democratic state party chair Richard Carlbom branded Lindell ‘Minnesota’s election-denying Trump clone’, adding: ‘We look forward to holding them both accountable in November.’
The endorsement landed one day before Trump delivers a primetime address on voting machines and election security, which Lindell predicted would bring him ‘vindication.’
