Politics

Loony Trump Lackey Turns on GOP With Wild Sabotage Claim

COLD SHOULDER

Trump’s pillow magnate pick for governor of Minnesota says he’s being deplatformed.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says the Minnesota Republican Party and local media outlets are shutting him out of the state’s gubernatorial primary.

On Monday’s edition of Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, Lindell, a 2020 election “truther,” accused Minnesota Republicans of deliberately excluding him from campaign events, including the upcoming GOP primary debate.

“They’re having a big GOP endorsement where they’re having a debate and I’m not allowed to come. They’ve shut me out,” he said.

“The establishment doesn’t want me, Stephen. The Minnesota media—you wouldn’t even know I’m running.”

Lindell officially declared his candidacy for governor of Minnesota in December 2025. Less than a week later, President Donald Trump, 79, threw his considerable weight behind him.

My Pillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell laughs as he greets reporters while announcing his run for Governor of Minnesota to a camera streaming to LindellTV Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025 at his company's warehouse in Shakopee, Minn.  ] ANTHONY SOUFFLE • anthony.souffle@startribune.com
"They’ve shut me out," MyPillow founder Mike Lindell says of the Minnesota Republican Party. Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune via Getty Images

“I hope he does great... That guy deserves to be governor of Minnesota,” Trump said of Lindell at a rally in the middle of one of his trademark rambling speeches, though he stopped short of officially endorsing him.

Even with the president’s voiced support, Lindell says that hasn’t given him the inside track. Instead, he’s been going county to county, meeting individual voters.

In the softball interview with Bannon, which included a lengthy plug for his “Memorial Day mattress sale,” he likens his campaign to the beginning of building his pillow business—going door-to-door across the state.

Mike Lindell
Mike Lindell went so far as to accuse “Satan” of rigging the 2020 election against Trump. Brian Snyder/REUTERS

“I believe I am the only one that can win, and I believe I’m the only one with the solutions to our problems,” Lindell continued.

Minnesota was rocked last year by a fraud investigation that Lindell says has tainted his Republican rivals, in particular State Speaker Lisa Demuth.

The scandal upended former Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz’s plans to run for a third term as governor, and current Senator Amy Klobuchar is running as the Democratic candidate to replace him.

Republican Candidate for Minnesota Governor, Lisa Demuth
Republican candidate for Governor, Lisa Demuth campaigns in Minnesota. Instagram/Lisa Demuth

The fraud investigation was the pretext for the president sending ICE into the state. The move resulted in a weeks-long standoff between ICE and locals, where in two separate incidents ICE agents shot and killed American citizens.

One, Renée Good, was an unarmed poet and mother who was trying to drive away; the other, Alex Pretti, was a nurse at a VA hospital who was legally carrying a gun, but was disarmed before he was shot.

Lindell says he is the candidate with momentum.

Gov. Walz responds to the Trump administration temporarily halting Medicaid payments to Minnesota.
Gov. Walz responds to the Trump administration temporarily halting Medicaid payments to Minnesota. X

“We’re running our campaign wide open, we’ve raised the most money, we’re the ones that are number one in the polls with the Republicans—and we can’t have the same input to get the same output.”

In a Republican-sponsored poll conducted at the end of January, Lindell was leading Demuth by one point, with 18 percent to her 17 percent; 34 percent of voters were undecided.

Mike Lindell
A February poll has Klobuchar winning a majority of votes in a race against either Lindell or Demuth. Jonathan Drake/REUTERS

A February poll has Klobuchar winning a majority of votes in a race against either Lindell or Demuth, with only 31 percent of voters choosing Lindell over Klobuchar; 38 percent preferred Demuth.

No Republican has won statewide office in Minnesota since 2006.