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Millions of votes were stolen in the presidential election – only in the 2020 one, the 2024 one was fine. Freedom is under attack! DEI judges are going after Americans! President Trump is keeping his promises. Freedom is making a comeback! Bed sheets, any size, any color, are available for $25 a set if you use the promo code L77, offer is for a limited time only.
Welcome to LindellTV, a strange mashup of a rightwing conspiracy theory news channel and bedroom-focused shopping platform.
LindellTV is one of several pro-Trump media outlets that was granted highly prized White House press credentials earlier this year – a move the government said would boost democracy, but which so far seems to have only boosted “make America great again” propaganda.
Founded by Mike Lindell, a pillow company CEO turned election fraud obsessive, LindellTV features fawning coverage of Trump and his allies, mixed in with conspiracy theories about voting machines – an issue which has already seen Lindell sued for millions of dollars. The channel isn’t carried by any actual television network, and its production values are comically poor, but that hasn’t stopped LindellTV working its way into the highest arena of US journalism.
Access to the White House briefing room, where the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, holds daily briefings for the world’s media, is highly coveted, and eyebrows were raised when the likes of LindellTV and Steve Bannon’s podcast were invited in. Only about 60 journalists can fit in the room, where they get a chance to ask tough questions of the government, an opportunity to hold the White House to account on behalf of the US and the world.
LindellTV reporters rarely take that chance.
“Will you guys also consider releasing the president’s fitness plan?” Cara Castronuova asked Leavitt in April, after the White House said it would share results from Trump’s annual medical exam.
“He actually looks healthier than ever before, healthier than he looked eight years ago, and I’m sure everybody in this room can agree. Is he working out with Bobby Kennedy, and is he eating less McDonald’s?”
The addition of friendly media outlets like LindellTV has helped take the edge off what has been a traditionally adversarial relationship between journalists and the White House press secretary. But it has also denied a seat at the table for people who might ask questions not about the remarkable health of the 78-year-old, 224lb president.
Instead, LindellTV’s daily content features hourlong shows from obscure rightwing podcasters, each lining up to tell the viewers – no data is available on how many people actually watch the network – what a superb job the Trump administration is doing.
The flagship show is hosted by Lindell himself, a Minnesota-born, moustachioed businessman whose MyPillow business enjoyed relative success before being dropped by almost all high street retailers after Lindell descended into election conspiracy chaos.
Lindell broadcasts his litany of conspiracy theories from what appears to be his home, but sometimes he does a walkabout, as was the case on Thursday, when he co-hosted The Mike Lindell Show from outside the White House. Most of his theories relate to judges “going after” him over his sustained and untrue claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
A segment on Thursday afternoon, nominally on “election integrity”, featured Lindell speaking into the camera for almost an hour, flanked by two women from LindellTV, each holding a microphone in front of their boss and each looking very bored.
Atypically for a broadcaster, Lindell was on a phone call while speaking to the camera, and at one point put the caller on speaker so he could also address the viewers. The sound was muffled, and Lindell eventually hung up the phone – “I’ll call you later,” Lindell said – before throwing to a woman called Vanessa in the LindellTV studio.
Vanessa wasn’t listening. “Are you there?” Lindell said.
Vanessa snapped to attention. Lindell talked at her for three minutes, before asking that the channel’s producers show a photo on screen of him talking to the press. LindellTV duly flashed to a blurry photo of Lindell speaking to a row of cameras.
Lindell paused, and Vanessa finally got the chance to say something.
“The people are depending on you,” she told Lindell.
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Vanessa, with Lindell still on screen, asked her production team to play a clip of Trump speaking about Lindell at a rally. The viewers heard a panicked producer saying they didn’t have that footage, a message Vanessa relayed to viewers, before Lindell took charge, imploring people to buy his pillows and bedsheets.
“They’re $25 a set,” Lindell said. “Any size, any color, while they last,” he added. The network then showed the MyPillow website, as Lindell told the production team to scroll down to the particular product he wanted people to buy. “We have over 250 products!” Lindell told the viewers.
One of the reporters then joined in to tout the benefits of MyPillow “dream sheets”. “Most comfortable, best, softest sheets of my life,” she said.
It was an unusual segment for a news network, and got stranger when one of the reporters then went on to urge people to buy Lindell’s book.
“You will not ever have a dull moment,” the reporter said. “And praise Jesus for bringing you through this whole journey.”
This shopping channel oeuvre is interspersed with a difficult-to-follow list of Lindell’s grievances.
Earlier this week, above a chyron that read “DEI judge is going after Mike!!!!”, Lindell continued his four-year crusade to, in his words, restore election integrity.
“The United States has the worst, everybody, elections on planet Earth. There’s nobody worse than us. You can find communist countries – nobody has worse elections than the United States,” Lindell said.
The channel then cut to an advert for MyPillow, of course, but also invited viewers to claim $20,000 in silver from a website called MikeLindellGold.com.
When the Guardian tried to access the website, Google Chrome denied access, warning that it “might be trying to steal your information”.
It was a neat metaphor for a channel that is built on chaos and slip-ups and dodgy facts and figures, a channel that despite those flaws, has been granted much sought-after access to the Trump administration.
