Best of frenemies: Mike Lindell in the Reformer over the years

Lindell, who was recently endorsed for governor by pal President Donald Trump, gained national prominence in the late 2010s for his ubiquitous pillow ads and a Christian memoir that shared his battle with a severe cocaine addiction. He didn’t start toying with politics until 2018, while pushing his pillow product on Fox News.

The Reformer started covering Lindell in 2020 after he first entertained the idea of running for governor of Minnesota. Over the years, the Reformer has covered multiple Lindell lawsuits by voting machine companies, domestic violence allegations, his long-ago “fake” bankruptcy, the collapse of his pillow fortune, his tax issues and the rapid rise of his 2026 campaign upon the Trump endorsement.

Here’s the Reformer round-up:

2020

Lindell flirted with a gubernatorial run in September 2020, announcing a potential campaign at a Duluth Trump rally — and COVID-19 super-spreader event — if Minnesota flipped red in the November election. (Republicans haven’t won a Minnesota statewide race in nearly 20 years, including Trump’s three presidential runs.)

After Minnesota stayed blue, and the election was called for Joe Biden, Lindell spearheaded now-debunked claims that electronic voting companies rigged the election. Lindell accused Dominion Voting Systems of using corrupted voting machines and began championing hand counted elections to defeat voter fraud, although election officials say hand counting is far slower and less accurate.

In November 2020, former Reformer reporter Deena Winter had her first of what would be many fruitful calls with Lindell. Lindell donated $50,000 to The Fight Back Foundation to support election fraud litigation, but the money was used as part of a bail fund for Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two and wounded another during Black Lives Matter protests in Wisconsin.

2021

As Trump prepared his unwilling exit from the White House, Lindell was spotted heading into meetings with the then-outgoing president as part of his last-ditch attempts to keep Trump in office.

In the days after the Jan. 6 insurrection, Lindell’s meeting notes seemed to outline a plan to move around administration officials and use the military if need be to remain in power, the Washington Post reported.

Lindell also briefly offered a $45 MyPillow discount for customers who entered the code, “QAnon,” a conspiracy theory that claimed Trump is saving the world from the Satan-worshipping, pedophiliac power elite. The discount code was later changed to “Q” following media reports.

Walmart, Kohl’s, J.C. Penney, Wayfair, Bed Bath & Beyond and other companies pulled MyPillow products shortly after.

The Reformer did a close read of Lindell’s memoir, “What Are The Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO,” including his claim that he’d entered into a “fake” bankruptcy to avoid damages in a 2003 lawsuit. Experts said Lindell could have faced five years in prison for committing a federal bankruptcy crime, but the statute of limitations had passed, however.

Winter also found records that detailed two allegations of domestic violence by an ex-wife and ex-girlfriend. The ex-girlfriend, in a protection order request from 2008, said that Lindell grabbed her around the neck and threw her on the ground and kicked and hit her until she called the police, but he wasn’t arrested.

Lindell has never been prosecuted for or convicted of spousal abuse.

In February, Dominion Voting Systems sued Lindell for $1.3 billion over claims the company rigged election results and cost Trump the election. Dominion accused Lindell of pushing voting fraud allegations during the 2020 election to improve MyPillow sales.

The pillow mogul then said he would pay $5 million to anyone that could disprove that there was fraud in the 2020 election. (Bob Zeidman took up the challenge and won, but he’s never been paid. More on that below. Winter talked to Zeidman about it in 2023.)

Lindell sat down with Trump at Mar-a-Lago for an “interview” in November, a year after Trump lost the election to Biden. Despite the ongoing Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, Lindell said he wanted to melt down voting machines and turn them into prison bars as he parroted claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Trump called Lindell “so brave” and “an incredible patriot.”

2022

Hungry and tired after duck hunting in Iowa, Lindell and a friend stopped at a Hardee’s — only to be met by federal law enforcement. In September, the MyPillow CEO told the Reformer that FBI agents surrounded his car and seized his phone while waiting at a drive-through in Mankato.

Lindell said that agents repeatedly asked about evidence relating to corrupted Dominion voting machines. An FBI spokesperson confirmed that the agents had a search warrant for Lindell’s phone.

Lindell sued then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray and the United States of America, alleging they violated his rights under the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit included a sealed copy of the executed search warrant.

The Reformer and independent journalist Tony Webster attempted to unseal the search warrant later that month, but the motion was denied in November.

2023

During court depositions for the defamation case in March, Lindell accused Eric Coomer, former director of product strategy and security for Dominion Voting Systems, and his lawyers of hurting MyPillow employees.

“How do you guys sleep at night?” Lindell asked the lawyers questioning him. “You obviously don’t have a MyPillow. That’s a fact.”

Winter had the chance to follow around Lindell in November as he continued his crusade against electronic voting machines while his personal fortune, and company’s, continued to dwindle.

He said Republicans were also covering up problems with voting machines.

“Republicans were stealing elections,” Lindell said. “Our biggest blockers have been the Republicans to get rid of these voting machines.”

Lindell told the Reformer that he convinced about 200 counties to “go machine free.”

The IRS had recently filed two liens against his Texas home and land for nearly $9.5 million after refusing a deduction related to Lindell’s efforts to offload $10 million worth of oleandrin, a poisonous plant extract and unproven COVID-19 treatment, to other countries during the pandemic. 

Lindell bought a stake in a company producing the dubious treatment, but his shipments kept getting stymied by the government until the oleandrin expired. He claimed it as a loss on his personal taxes.

2024

MyPillow was evicted from two of its Shakopee warehouses in March, but Lindell told the Reformer that the warehouses had been empty since the fall.

A judge ruled that Lindell must pay up on his $5 million promise to Zeidman, the California cyber forensics expert who found that the 2020 election was, in fact, not stolen. Lindell said he would appeal and told the Reformer it was a “sham.” A court ruled in 2025 that Lindell would not have to pay up his $5 million promise to Zeidman after Lindell’s appeal.

2025

Lindell began publicly considering a run for Minnesota’s next governor in September. That same month, a federal judge ruled that Lindell defamed voting machine company Smartmatic. The company seeks $1.5 billion in damages.

The MyPillow CEO found himself faced with yet another lawsuit in November. Far-right Colorado podcaster Joe Oltmann sued Lindell, alleging Lindell breached the terms of a $3 million loan agreement.

Lindell officially launched his bid for Minnesota’s governor in December.

2026

As Lindell prepared for the gubernatorial race, he spent a sizable chunk of his campaign finances buying copies of his memoir, “What Are The Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO,” the Reformer reported in February. Instead of typical campaign flyers, Lindell said, he is handing out copies of his book to prospective voters. The upshot: Donor money in his pocket.

In July, the Reformer reported that Lindell has $48,000 outstanding in property taxes for his residence in Tonka Bay. Lindell first claimed the check was in the mail, but later told the Reformer he still needed to call his accountant and check on it. As of Tuesday, Hennepin County records still show his 2025 property taxes are unpaid.

Trump endorsed Lindell for Minnesota’s governor on July 15 over GOP-endorsed candidate Kendall Qualls and Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth. The Reformer called Lindell for comment, resulting in an unexpected 30 minute interview. Despite saying his relationship with the president is “none of (our) business,” Lindell said he speaks to the president every three to four months. In between presidencies, Trump and Lindell called every week.

None of those phone calls amounted to a shared vision on immigration, however. Lindell released an 18-page, five-pronged plan to reform the federal immigration system shortly after receiving the Trump endorsement.

Lindell’s proposal involves immediately deporting all undocumented immigrants with a felony or gross misdemeanor conviction, while creating a 120-day window for undocumented immigrants to apply for a new “worker visa card,” which would grant temporary legal status contingent on continued work and no criminal convictions.

Facing sharp attacks for what his Republican critics called an amnesty plan, Lindell backtracked and said he was cool with Trump’s mass deportation.