'My cyber guys looked at it': Mike Lindell won't quit conspiracy theory after Trump boost

Mike Lindell speaks to the media as he attends Donald Trump's rally in Kinston, North Carolina, U.S., November 3, 2024. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake

President Donald Trump endorsed MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for governor on Wednesday, providing his campaign a boost in the face of lackluster campaign fundraising and his own personal financial problems, including his failure to pay property taxes on his $2.5 million Tonka Bay home.

The Reformer called Lindell on Wednesday morning to get his reaction. It was intended to be brief, but Lindell wanted to talk. He repeatedly criticized the media, especially the Reformer’s coverage of him.

Lindell laid out his campaign plans, why he’s electable and how he would cut taxes as governor.

The following has been edited for clarity and length.

This is how Lindell began: “A great day! Woo!”

Talk me through how you’re feeling.

I couldn’t be feeling any better because I was really looking forward to Thursday night. The president is putting out all the stuff that we got and declassifying all the stuff that you media said there’s no evidence.

And what a great day to get an endorsement so I can’t be bashed by you guys in the media everyday now saying, “Oh gee, Mike’s just a conspiracy theorist, and hey, what does he know?” So I’m excited to get past all that and move on to making Minnesota affordable and winning this election.

Were you expecting the president’s endorsement today?

No idea. No idea. It’s really great though. What perfect timing on the heels of tomorrow night’s big announcement of declassifying all the evidence from the 2020 election that you guys have called me a liar and everything else. It’ll be a great day. The evidence is irrefutable. Same stuff I had for five-and-a-half years. This isn’t just fake evidence. This is the evidence that came right out of the machines.

How do you think the president’s endorsement would impact your campaign against Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November, if you win the August primary?

Of course, it’s going to help. When you get into the general, you got to have a lot of money for marketing. I’m a great marketer, and I have a great plan. Get that word out there, rather than spending all the money on bashing other candidates. I want to show Minnesota I’m not going to make any false promises. By having the president’s endorsement now, the money — I’ve already raised upwards of $3 million now — the money will pour in for this marketing. The money will pour in nationwide.

This will bring in millions of dollars. I’m looking forward to debating Amy Klobuchar. These things that are happening in Minnesota, I don’t care if she’s a senator, but she was right here representing us and bringing money back into our state for these programs. She never followed through to see if people were actually getting them and getting the help they need. Shame on you, Amy. I’m sorry. You’re not a very good steward of our money. To me, she’s going to be another Tim Walz. We need a change.

You said that you raised upwards of $3 million so far. I don’t see that in your campaign finance reports.

What are you talking about? You only have the second quarter one. How old is the one you’re looking at? I think they do them every three months. I don’t know. The money we raised in, we spent that as it came in. I’ve told you that. As fast as we’re getting money in, we’re putting it right out the door to campaign.

(Editor’s note: Minnesota campaign finance records show Lindell’s campaign has raised just over $1 million since he launched his bid in December. Lindell’s campaign had about $12,000 cash on hand as of the end of May.)

We go all over Minnesota. Also, I’m doing my (state) budget (proposal) right now. I’m getting that ready because that’s what I want to advertise. I want to show Minnesota that we have solutions. Someday you’ll actually write a nice article about me. I have great solutions for all these problems we face in Minnesota.

Just because I have Donald Trump’s endorsement doesn’t mean I do everything — you know follow exactly everything he would do — no. That’s not who I am. I’ve been the same person before you guys started to attack me.

I wrote that story about your unpaid property taxes on your Tonka Bay property. Hennepin County records still show they aren’t paid.

Okay. Just do whatever you got to do. If that’s what you’re going to do, you wasted my time. Go ahead and write your article on that. I got nothing more to say to you.

Well, records show it’s still not paid. You said the checks were going out in the mail.

I’ll have to check with my accountant. They take care of that stuff, but I’ll check on it for you. I know you got so much concern there. Thanks for looking out for my taxes. You pay a little higher interest and penalty on that when you don’t pay it on time. I’m sure you know that, right? You are aware of that right? It’s not illegal. It’s just you have to pay a little more.

As you know, MyPillow is the most attacked company in history. I told you that, last year, money was very tight. I’ve had to sell stuff personally to keep everything going. Now everything is in shape. We made it through all the attacks by our own government. By Jack Smith. You should be proud that one of your biggest companies in Minnesota made it through an attack by our own government. But you can go ahead and just do your little hit job. It makes me wonder how you sleep at night. But go ahead.

What’s next for your campaign?

We got events almost every other day. People want change in Minnesota. They want solutions. We need to make things affordable for all people in Minnesota. People are leaving by the tens of thousands. You see Minneapolis buildings. The properties go from $60 million down to $6 million. Our cities are going to be empty. We need to bring back the people, bring back the tourism and make Minnesota affordable again.

In spite of you guys attacking me all the time and MyPillow being attacked, I’m still here. I’m not going anywhere. I want to save our state. I’m very compassionate to all the people affected by problems they’ve never addressed in Minneapolis, with homeless people and addiction.

You guys never want to report this stuff. You don’t even report the fraud. You’re too busy trying to say, “Mike Lindell didn’t pay his taxes last year.” Well, I’m sorry. I didn’t have the money last year and then I had to pay a penalty for it. Otherwise, you lose your property. That’s just the way it is. Doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. It means I couldn’t afford — just like everybody’s going through the same thing in Minnesota.

How often do you speak to the president? Do you bounce ideas off him? Does he give you advice?

That’s none of your business. But I talk to the president maybe once every three, four months. It used to be weekly in between presidencies, when we became great friends. I don’t call him to bounce ideas off him. I will when I’m governor. I absolutely will call. Having a relationship like that, what a benefit for Minnesota.

Plus, I know so many governors in this country, not just Republicans. That’s going to be a big benefit to have those relationships in place to say, “Have you ever had this problem before?” Or maybe it’s Florida. “How do you guys afford not to have income tax?” These are good things a businessman would do. No other candidate has the relationship that I have like that, where we will be able to leverage them and use them for Minnesota’s benefit.

Do you want to get rid of Minnesota’s income tax?

I would love to get rid of Minnesota’s income tax. Other one would be the sales tax. You either can do one or the other. But you’d probably have to raise the internet (sales) tax, which would be your MyPillow and your Amazons of the world to balance that. But that’s something I’m looking at. You’ve got all the money we save looking at these programs and streamlining and making it better — there’s billions of dollars.

I have a big plan to bring tourism to bring other people back to Minnesota. It’s just going to be amazing, and by doing that, you either lower income tax or eliminate it, or the sales tax. I don’t think you can do both, so it’s one or the other.

Do you believe the president won Minnesota in the last three presidential elections, like he claims?

He won in 2016. In 2020, I believe he won. It was real close, and these are my cyber guys that have looked at it. I couldn’t say 100% either way.

(Editor’s note: President Trump did not win Minnesota in the last three presidential elections. He lost to Hillary Clinton by 1.5 percentage points in 2016; lost to Joe Biden by 7 points in 2020; and lost to Kamala Harris by 4 points in 2024.)

Anything else about how you’re feeling today after the president’s endorsement?

I’m just very hopeful. I can be a lot more proactive. I’m not gonna let up on winning the primary and take it for granted. That’s not me. And, as you know, I never give up.

I’ve been preparing to go against Amy Klobuchar since last December, and I think the only way to go after that is show that there’s new solutions to our problems and not just do typical political things like Amy’s been doing. “Oh, here I am up in northern Minnesota at a coffee shop. Oh boy, here I am out in the cold!” I mean give me a break. You know, I’ve been everywhere too, Amy. What are you going to do to fix what’s going on?

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