Every Time A MyPillow Guy Interview Turned Into Train Wreck
Mike Lindell aka the MyPillow guy may have one of the weirdest rags-to-riches stories. The recovering addict turned multi-millionaire somehow worked his way from running a pillow empire into serving as the prime example of American entrepreneurship for President Donald Trump. Lindell's new right-hand man status gave him a soapbox to not only share his story, but also his eccentric views.
In fact, the proud Trump supporter spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention from his home state of Minnesota. He said, according to CBS Minnesota, "This year, the terrible Democratic leadership in Minnesota made some of the worst decisions in history. This manifested into so much of the destruction of my great state and country."
Prior to the RNC, Lindell was already making his media rounds promoting what he said to be the "cure" to the coronavirus, though it was unconfirmed. To discuss his "findings," the MyPillow guy spoke with CNN's Anderson Cooper, which led to one of the strangest interviews ever. However, it's definitely not the first time Lindell has said some wacky things in an interview. Take a look at some of his weirder moments.
Anderson Cooper calls the MyPillow guy a snake oil salesman
In an August 2020 interview, Mike Lindell spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper to discuss the use of oleandrin, an extract from the oleander plant, as a miracle "cure" for COVID-19. What makes the pillow king an expert in science and disease control? According to USA Today, Lindell has a financial stake in Phoenix Biotechnology, the lab creating the miracle drug, where he also has "a friend" who told him about the drug. Lindell said he spoke to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson — not an infectious diseases expert — who declared it to be the "real deal," which helped sell the idea to President Donald Trump.
Though the MyPillow guy said "this thing works" and "it's the miracle of all time," Cooper was less convinced.
"You have no medical background; you're not a scientist," Cooper pointed out. "A guy called you in April, said he had this product. You are now on the board and going to make money from the sale of this product. The reason he reached out to you is because you have the ear of the president, so he gets a meeting with the president, and you stand to make money from this. How do you sleep at night?"
Cooper also called Lindell a "snake oil salesman," to which he replied, per Deadline: "I give the glory to God — I do what Jesus has me do! I give the glory to God!"
Mike Lindell got the idea for MyPillow from a dream
While many million dollar ideas are made in corporate boardrooms, Mike Lindell came up with MyPillow in a more unusual way. In a 2017 interview with CNBC, the entrepreneur said the idea came to him in a dream. At the time that Lindell started the company in 2004, he was in the thick of an addiction to crack cocaine.
"I got up in the middle of the night — it was about 2 in the morning — and I had 'My Pillow' written everywhere in the kitchen and all over the house," he said. He added that one of his daughters saw him in the middle of the night whilst getting out of bed for a glass of water and asked what he was doing.
"I've got this idea for this pillow. It's gonna be called MyPillow," Lindell told his daughter. "What do you think about it?" To which his sleepy daughter responded, "That's really random" and went back downstairs to her bedroom. Still, the entrepreneur was convinced that the idea for MyPillow came from God.
How the MyPillow guy capitalizes on being boycotted
While most people try to lay low when the masses openly attack, the MyPillow guy likes to lean right into the fire. In a 2020 interview with Spicer & Co., Mike Lindell revealed that he doubled his ads after he supported a second presidential term for Donald Trump.
"Here's what happens. Everybody on the right buys more than they were going to buy before," he explained. "And, the people on the left still buy. It's that small, extreme group that says, 'Let's boycott them. I was going to buy 12 pillows and now I'm not buying any.' You're lying, you weren't going to buy any pillows."
He added, "My business goes up every time something like this happens." He also felt the same sentiment about those who protested Goya products after CEO Robert Unanue also backed Trump, per the Washington Post.
Lindell asked how protesters could "be calling for a boycott just because the CEO is saying good things about the greatest president we've ever had?" Ultimately, according to the MyPillow inventor, the boycotts raised consumer prices, which those who weren't protesting happily paid for.