MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is certain the 2020 election was stolen. He’s so certain, in fact, that in 2021 he issued a challenge to his critics: Prove my data wrong and win $5 million. The theatrics behind his challenge were pure Lindell — but on Thursday, a three-member arbitration panel agreed that his “prove Mike wrong” challenge was more than just marketing. It was a binding legal contract.
Records from last year indicate Lindell is spending $1 million each month to keep the lights on at his fledgling far-right social media platform, Frank Speech.
The finding points to a trend that would appear self-defeating — exorbitant amounts of money hemorrhaged into a conspiracy theory that is continuously disproved and often ridiculed. But in a remarkable show of MAGA loyalty, he isn’t just soldiering on, he’s doubling down on the expensive business of election denial.
Lindell made his flashy $5 million offer at a “summit” he’d hastily convened in South Dakota, where he promised to present evidence so convincing that the Supreme Court would unanimously agree to oust President Joe Biden. For the occasion, Lindell shared a spreadsheet of data he claimed showed Chinese interference in the 2020 election. There’s just one problem: His data had nothing to do with the 2020 election at all.
“Almost everyone there was pro-Trump, and everyone said, ‘This data is nonsense,’” said Robert Zeidman, a software engineer and self-described Trump Republican who took only a few days to thoroughly debunk Lindell’s junk data. That was two years ago. Now arbitrators agree: Zeidman was right and Lindell was wrong.
Lindell dismissed the entire process as illegitimate. “I don’t owe him any money,” he told CBS' "MoneyWatch" after the decision. “[Zeidman] didn’t prove anything … this has all been one big plan, a coordinated plan to stop me.” For someone who has faced as many humiliating legal hurdles as Lindell, one would think he’d be better at taking an L.
But for a guy who keeps getting punched in the face by the American judicial system, he is still strident in his oft-debunked beliefs. Some of that chest-thumping is just Trumpian performance for the media, but it seems there’s real fear behind Lindell’s rush to appeal. As years of spending show, Lindell’s inexplicable confidence is draining his bank account at a staggering rate.
Records from last year indicate Lindell is spending $1 million each month to keep the lights on at his fledgling far-right social media platform, Frank Speech. That’s not going so well. The site, which celebrated its second anniversary Thursday, is known mainly for being the only social network with an integrated pillow purchasing function. Yet, the platform is an afterthought compared to Trump’s Truth Social. Lindell, the most popular account on Frank, has only 30,000 followers.
Lindell has also set his money on fire through a yearslong series of election denial lawsuits. None of those featherweight attempts survived the most basic judicial review, mostly because his arguments were incomprehensible. But he has said those vanity filings still amounted to tens of millions of dollars in personal spending.
Lindell’s deep pockets and willingness to finance even the most out-there conspiracy theories has made him a folk hero in MAGA mythology.
Oh, yeah, and Dominion Voting Systems — of the $787.5 million Fox News settlement fame — is also suing Lindell for defamation. Dominion’s argument is similar to the one that cowed Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch into settling the network’s own defamation suit, a fact which is likely causing some indigestion around the Lindell family dinner table.
Lindell’s deep pockets and willingness to finance even the most out-there conspiracy theories has made him a folk hero in MAGA mythology. The confident cheers of far-right trolls may be energizing his ego, but it’s also hollowing out his bank account. But Trumpism never allows for retreat, only doubling down. And Lindell is nothing if not a Trump purist. So he is stuck — his dubious lawsuits need defending, and that isn’t cheap.
Last month, he admitted to taking out a massive $10 million loan to cover his mounting financial woes. For most Americans, that decision would be an opportunity to engage in some long-overdue self-reflection. Not so for him, who has already vowed to fund as many appeals as necessary to overturn the 2020 election and reinstall Trump in the White House.
A request for comment was not returned by the time this column was published.
It appears Lindell still believes he’s just weeks away from finally proving that Biden and the Chinese government worked together to oust Trump from the White House. If you could spot him a few bucks in the meantime, he’d likely really appreciate it.