This one has potentially profound geopolitical implications. This is a conspiracy theory more elaborate than the purported Venezuelan manipulation of voting machines, more improbable than the allegation that millions of supposedly fake ballots were mailed in, more baroque than the belief that thousands of dead people voted. These were, allegedly, packet captures, intercepted data proving that the Chinese Communist Party altered electoral results … in all 50 states. Last January-on the 9th, he says carefully, placing the date after the 6th-a group of still-unidentified concerned citizens brought him some computer data. MyPillow spent tens of thousands of dollars advertising on Newsmax just in the week following the January 6 attack on the Capitol.Īnd now Lindell is spending on more than just advertising.
#TRUMP PILLOW SALESMAN MARTIAL LAW TV#
MyPillow has long been an important advertiser on Fox News, so much so that even Trump noticed Lindell (“That guy is on TV more than I am”), but has since widened its net. Not only is he presumably much richer than Garland Favorito and Willis he is willing to spend his money on the cause. On the day I was at the studio, Bannon was gloating about how President Joe Biden was now “defending his own legitimacy”: “We are going to spring the trap around you, sir!” He kept telling people to “lawyer up.”Įven in this group, Lindell stands out. Bannon calls them up one by one to report on the current status of the Trump-reinstatement campaign and related fake scandals. Bannon’s podcast, which he says has millions of listeners (it is ranked 59th on Apple Podcasts, so he might be right), is populated by full-time conspiracy theorists, some of whom you have heard of and some of whom you probably haven’t: Peter “Trump Won in a Freakin’ Landslide” Navarro, Rudy Giuliani, Garland Favorito, Willis Sonny Borrelli, the Pizzagate propagator Jack Posobiec, and, of course, Lindell.
Instead, he inhabits an alternate universe in which every minute of every day seems to be entirely devoted to the discussion and analysis of “electoral fraud,” with just a little time devoted to selling wellness products and vitamins that, despite his claims, won’t actually cure COVID-19. Later, Lindell told me that if it weren’t for attacks by “the left”-by which he means Politico, the Daily Beast, and, presumably, me-his message would never get out, because Fox News ignores him.īannon, too, lives outside the Fox bubble these days. This wasn’t surprising: In his podcasts, Bannon carries on a kind of dialogue with Rachel Maddow, playing her sound bites and then offering his own critique. In the room adjacent to the basement studio, an extra-large image of a New York Times front page hung on the wall, featuring a picture of Bannon and the headline “The Provocateur.” A bottle of Bio-Active Silver Hydrosol, whatever that is, sat on the desk.
I walked in during a break and the two men immediately gestured to me to join the conversation, sit at the table with them, listen in on headphones. Bannon has been decomposing in front of our eyes for some years now, and I can report that this process continues to take its course. I made it through the entirety of the Trump presidency without once having to meet Bannon but here he was, recording his War Room podcast with Lindell.
I met Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, in the recording studio that occupies the basement of Steve Bannon’s stately Capitol Hill townhouse, a few blocks from the Supreme Court-the same Supreme Court that will, according to Lindell, decide “9–0” in favor of reinstating Donald Trump to the presidency sometime in August, or possibly September. A patriot-or so he says-who may well be doing more damage to American democracy than anyone since Jefferson Davis. A man who will talk to anyone willing to listen (and to many who aren’t).
#TRUMP PILLOW SALESMAN MARTIAL LAW CRACK#
A recovered crack addict, no less, who laughs good-naturedly when jokes are made at his expense. Here is what you probably don’t imagine: an affable, self-made midwesterner, one of those goofy businessmen who makes his own infomercials. Maybe you think of a jackbooted thug leading a horde of men in white sheets, all carrying burning crosses. Maybe your nightmare is a rogue general, hijacking the nuclear football. When you contemplate the end of democracy in America, what kind of person do you think will bring it about? Maybe you picture a sinister billionaire in a bespoke suit, slipping brown envelopes to politicians.
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