“Is Mike Lindell’s Background Relevant?”

Born in 1961 in Mankato, Minnesota, Lindell was brought up in Chaska and Carver, also located in Minnesota. His struggle with gambling surfaced during his adolescence. Following high school, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota but decided to quit a few months later. In his 20s, Lindell developed a cocaine addiction which escalated when he switched to crack cocaine in the 1990s. Concurrently, he was grappling with gambling debts. The cumulative effect of these addictions through the 1980s and 1990s resulted in him losing his house to foreclosure and his wife filing for divorce. However, Lindell managed to overcome his addictions by turning to prayer in 2009.

What Has Been Mike Lindell’s Career Path?

During the 1980s, Lindell initiated and managed several small-scale businesses. These included a carpet cleaning service, lunch wagons, along with a handful of bars and restaurants in Carver County, Minnesota.

What is My Pillow, and how is Mike Lindell related to it?

In 2004, Lindell created My Pillow, a pillow filled with interlocking pieces of shredded foam. He turned this idea into a manufacturing company based in Minnesota. In 2017, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) withdrew its accreditation for My Pillow and gave it an F rating due to numerous consumer complaints. The BBB pointed out that the company’s recurring buy one, get one free offer was misleading as it had become the regular price rather than a special deal or free offer. Lindell expressed his disappointment at the BBB’s decision.

In 2020, Lindell appointed his son Darren as the chief operating officer of the company, hinting at potential political aspirations of his own. By 2021, several big retailers discontinued carrying My Pillow products. While Lindell attributed this to his controversial comments about the 2020 U.S presidential election results, stores like Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond cited market research and low consumer demand as their reasons. By July 2023, MyPillow had sold off equipment and sublet some of its manufacturing space after more retailers including Walmart and Slumberland Furniture also stopped selling My Pillow products.

Who is Frank:Frank?

Lindell runs two websites under the Frank brand: Frank (also known as FrankSpeech) which is a video streaming site, and the social network, FrankSocial.

In March 2021, Lindell shared his plans for Vocl, an alternative tech social media platform that he had been working on for several months. He envisioned it as a hybrid of YouTube and Twitter, distinct from platforms like Gab and Parler. However, following a dispute with a company that owned a site named Vocal, Lindell was compelled to change his site’s name to Frank. The website, located at frankspeech.com was launched on April 19, 2021 but faced numerous technical problems at its outset. According to Lindell, these issues were due to a “massive attack”. Notably, Frank does not offer any social networking features and primarily houses embedded video streams such as Absolute Interference – a two-hour video promoting conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.

Lindell has reportedly invested millions into developing Frank. An investigative report by Salon revealed that Lindell spent approximately $936k on hardware, labor and services for the launch of Frank according to leaked invoices from a video conference with Lindell’s IT team. Jared Holt from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab suggested that those around Lindell may be exploiting him financially given how costly his various projects are. In March 2022, Lindell disclosed to Insider that he was spending over $1 million per month on maintaining and improving Frank.

FrankSocial became accessible in April 2022 as a separate social networking platform hosted on another domain. A journalist from Insider noted its design similarity with Facebook’s layout in 2012 featuring a simple news feed without any messaging capabilities. As of April 21st, Lindell had gathered more followers than any other user on this platform with a total count of 308.

What is Mike Lindell’s involvement in philanthropy?

In the initial stages of My Pillow, contributions were made by Lindell to both the Salvation Army and Union Gospel Mission. He established the Lindell Foundation, a charitable institution committed to helping recovering addicts access treatment and other required services. Over time, the foundation expanded its reach to include assistance for cancer patients and veterans. In 2019, Lindell initiated the Lindell Recovery Network. This serves as a platform that links addicts with individuals who have experienced drug addiction and recovery. It also provides connections to faith-based treatment facilities and other organizations dedicated to recovery processes.

What are Mike Lindell’s political activities?

In August 2016, Lindell had a meeting with the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, which led to him becoming a fervent supporter. Following Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, Lindell praised him as “the most amazing president this country has ever seen in history”. He also referred to his meeting with Trump as a “divine appointment” during a speech at Liberty University in August 2019 and committed himself fully to supporting him.

Lindell was present at various key events throughout the 2016 presidential race including the final debate in Las Vegas, a Trump campaign rally in Minneapolis and the Official Donald Watch Party. Additionally, he attended Trump’s inauguration where he received a personal gift from Trump – an inauguration lapel pin.

In 2017, Lindell was seated next to Trump at an industry roundtable event held at the White House. The following year, his business acumen earned him compliments from Trump during a rally in Fargo, North Dakota. He also delivered speeches at both a Trump rally in Rochester, Minnesota and the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference where he reiterated his belief that Trump is “the greatest president in history” and God’s chosen leader.

In 2019, Lindell met with both President Trump and one of his staffers to discuss measures against opioid addiction. He was present when bipartisan legislation aimed at tackling the opioid crisis was signed by President Trump.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, Lindell announced on Fox News that his company’s bedding factories were producing face masks upon request from the administration. Later that month during a press conference on coronavirus held at the White House, he praised President Trump for changing America’s trajectory since November 8th, 2016 and urged people to turn back towards God.

Lindell considered running for governor of Minnesota in 2022 against Democratic incumbent Tim Walz reportedly due to encouragement from Trump. He also became the campaign chair for Trump’s reelection campaign in Minnesota in May 2020. Despite stating that he was “99% sure” about running, Lindell did not end up on the ballot.

In November 2020, he reportedly contributed towards the bail of Kyle Rittenhouse, the Kenosha shooter. However, he later clarified that his donation was meant to fund election fraud litigation and other causes.

In April 2022, questions arose regarding an alleged donation of as much as $800,000 made by Lindell to a legal defense fund

Is Mike Lindell Promoting Unproven Medical Treatments?

In 2020, Lindell advocated for the use of oleandrin, a heart-damaging compound derived from oleanders, as a potential cure for COVID-19. He even set up a meeting between then-President Donald Trump and Andrew Whitney, who both serve on the board of biopharmaceuticals firm Phoenix Biotechnology. It’s noteworthy that Lindell has financial investments in this company. Despite his assertions that oleandrin was proven safe in research studies, there is no scientific proof to support the claim that it is either safe or effective for treating coronavirus infections.

Did Mike Lindell Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Presidential Election?

After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Lindell became a prominent backer of Trump’s efforts to contest the results. He funded a bus tour that aimed to challenge the election outcome and made speeches at five stops. He clarified that he didn’t finance any trips to promote the January 6 rally which resulted in the Capitol being stormed by Trump supporters. Lindell was present at this rally but didn’t go to the Capitol. Afterward, he spread an unfounded conspiracy theory blaming antifa for the attack.

Lindell was involved in promoting a baseless conspiracy theory alleging that voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion schemed with foreign powers to rig machines against Trump. In early 2021, Dominion warned Lindell they planned on suing him due to his role in spreading misinformation about them. This followed Newsmax broadcasting false reporting on voting machine fraud after a letter from Dominion, paired with a defamation lawsuit from a company executive.

Twitter permanently banned Lindell in January 2021 for continuously asserting without evidence that Trump won the 2020 election. This was deemed as violation of Twitter’s civic integrity policy designed to combat disinformation.

In February 2021, Lindell aired ‘Absolute Proof,’ a documentary making false claims about the election on One America News Network (OANN). YouTube subsequently removed it due to violating its policy against election disinformation. The film later won Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture and Worst Actor.

Dominion sued Lindell for defamation in February 2021 after he refused their requests to retract his false claims about them and sought $1.3 billion damages. Likewise, Smartmatic sued him for defamation in January 2022 as his false allegations had negatively impacted their value.

Despite losing his lawsuits against Dominion and Smartmatic, Lindell continued pushing unfounded claims about election fraud throughout 2021 and even predicted Donald Trump would return as president several times during that year.

Lindell hosted a three-day “Cyber Symposium” promising to prove election fraud but failed to do so. He also offered $5 million to anyone who could disprove his claim of Chinese interference in the 2020 election, which was subsequently disproven by software developer Robert Zeidman, causing him to pay the reward.

In September 2021, Bonner County in Idaho announced a recount of ballots cast during the 2020 presidential election due to Lindell’s allegations of digital hacking. The recount confirmed the accuracy of the original results and found no evidence of hacking.

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What is known about Mike Lindell’s personal life?

Lindell has experienced three marriages in his lifetime. His initial matrimony lasted for approximately two decades before concluding in divorce, and he fathered children during this period. In June 2013, he wed Dallas Yocum but sought a divorce just a month later when she abandoned him. The couple had an existing prenuptial agreement. Donald Trump disclosed Lindell’s third marriage at a public rally on April 6, 2024.

As an evangelical Christian, Lindell was honored with a Doctor of Business degree from Liberty University in 2019. Dave Brat, who was the dean of the university’s School of Business at that time, lauded Lindell as “one of the greatest Christian businessmen on the planet” while presenting the award. During the ceremony, Lindell donated over $600,000 worth of pillows to those present – totaling up to 12,000 pillows. That same year, Lindell authored and self-published a book titled What Are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO which narrates his recovery from substance addiction and how his pillow business came about due to divine intervention.

In January 2021, Daily Mail reported that Lindell maintained a romantic relationship with actress Jane Krakowski between late 2019 and mid-2020; however, both parties denied these claims. Represented by lawyer Charles Harder, Lindell filed a libel lawsuit against Daily Mail which was subsequently dismissed in December 2021 by a federal court due to lack of evidence supporting defamatory statements.

By March 2021, Lindell announced during an appearance on The Domenick Nati Show that he had relocated outside Minnesota and refrained from attending physical events owing to safety concerns.