At a star-studded event that features political wunderkinds, conservative television superstars and members of the Trump administration, one of the biggest hits at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference has been a man who runs a 15-year-old, direct-to-consumer pillow company.
Mike Lindell is synonymous with the company he founded, and seemingly everybody at CPAC seemed to know both.
Perhaps that’s because MyPillow’s ads are ubiquitous on the most important television channel in the conservative movement, Fox News.
Today, the mustachioed Lindell walked briskly through the halls of Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, accompanied by a small entourage of people.
After a scrum formed around Lindell in the afternoon, a security guard shouted, “Let him go! Let him go!”
“It’s everywhere I go,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve been on TV so much, and I think people like the message I give out, that MyPillow is just a platform for God, and it helps so many people. I enjoy it. I don’t run from it. I like talking to people.”
The 55-year-old admits he started abusing cocaine in the 1980s, but switched over to crack in the 1990s.
His drug use continued into his company’s earliest days in 2004.
Lindell was divorced for the first time by 2008, and was arrested in January of that year on suspicion of domestic assault.
The woman he was dating claimed he had punched and kicked her — even hitting her with “a four-foot wooden dowel,” according to documents.
Lindell denied the allegations, but an order of protection was still issued in the case.
He was arrested two months later for violating the order by allegedly taking the woman’s car.
He ultimately pleaded guilty to the order of protection violation.
Lindell was arrested again in September 2008 in Las Vegas on an outstanding warrant from passing bad checks in a casino eight years prior.
Later that year his drug dealers staged an intervention after he went 19 days without sleep.
More recently he he agreed to pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit over his MyPillow’s health claims.
Now he says he’s sober and turned to Jesus.
And Trump, who he believes was sent by God.
“As I stand before you today, I see the greatest president in history. Of course he is. He was chosen by God,” Lindell told the CPAC audience. “God answered our prayers, our millions of prayers, and gave us grace, and a miracle happened on Nov. 8, 2016. We were given a second chance and time granted to get our country back on track with our conservative values and getting people saved in Jesus’s name.”
“As I stand before you today I see the greatest president in history” @realMikeLindell on the successes of President @realDonaldTrump. #CPAC2019 #WhatMakesAmericaGreat pic.twitter.com/4v6gZGVANB
— CPAC 2019 (@CPAC) February 28, 2019
MyPillow’s ads fit nicely into Fox News’ primetime lineup, which is dominated by Trump-supporting hosts like Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.
Lindell’s company is consistently one of The Ingraham Angle’s top sponsors and was No. 1 for Tucker Carlson Tonight for a good chunk of 2018, according to Kantar Media data.
MyPillow is increasingly important to the success of Fox News.
As major brands have fled the network’s primetime opinion hosts, Lindell, who despises ad boycotts, has stayed put or doubled down.
Well, as if dubious (fraudulent?) product claims weren’t enough, this eye-opener most certainly assures my avoidance of “My Pillow”… at all costs!
Same here,always thought he was a lying coniving puke. Hate his stupid pillow also.
This guy is a sleaze bag. He’s now hawking “Giza cotton sheet sets”. I wouldn’t buy them.
I was always advised that what you read about someone that is negative, to look who is writing it. Ask yourself is it REALLY TRUE? What is the reason for making issues of the past public. Could it be possible that their goal is to discredit him? Again, did you go any further to see if the story is true or are you blindly lead by the writer.
It seems that Mike Lindell has lived a life that we would not put him up as the best poster man of the year. Instead we would hold him up to see what you can become if you walk away from the life that is pulling you under.
As for his product, it is a market that you can choose or not choose. But to not choose because you read one story. Can it be that he said something nice about someone and that someone is Formal President Trump?
There is nothing posted on this website that isn’t true. It’s why we’re called ‘fact news.’ Lindell’s past is relevant because he emerged as a leading defender of the President of the United States, therefore making himself public.