Mike Lindell, the My Pillow entrepreneur and internet huckster who became a controversial figure in American politics by pushing Donald Trump’s Big Lie about an allegedly stolen election, has not given up on his beliefs and hopes to prevent a recurrence in 2024.
Lindell claims that the 2020 election was rigged by voting machines from Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, and that Trump actually won by millions of votes. He has spent millions of dollars on lawsuits, ads, and events to try to prove his allegations, but has failed to provide any credible evidence. He has also faced legal consequences for his actions, such as a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion and a $5 million breach of contract lawsuit from a software engineer, yet he continues to fight.
He has lately been promoting a controversial device that he claims can detect and prevent election fraud by monitoring Wi-Fi signals at polling places. Lindell calls the device a WMD, which stands for Wireless Monitoring Device, and says it can be attached to a drone and flown near voting machines to see if they are connected to the Internet. Lindell bizarrely believes that Wi-Fi connections are evidence of tampering and hacking, and he wants to use his device to alert his followers of any suspicious activity through an app he has created.
Lindell has been promoting and selling these devices since August 2023, after hosting an event called the Election Crime Bureau Summit. However, Lindell’s device has been met with skepticism and criticism from election officials, cybersecurity experts, and legal scholars, who say that it is based on false assumptions, unreliable technology, and illegal surveillance.
However, election officials in Northern Kentucky have banned Lindell’s devices from their polls, saying that they are illegal and potentially a felony. They argue that the devices could violate the privacy of voters and interfere with the voting process. They also point out that Lindell’s devices are based on false assumptions and conspiracy theories, as there is no evidence of widespread election fraud or online tampering of voting machines.
Lindell’s devices have received some support from other election deniers and Trump loyalists, who share his belief that the 2020 election was stolen. For example, Jeff O’Donnell, a former congressional candidate who unsuccessfully sued to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania, attended Lindell’s summit and praised his devices as a way to monitor elections. Lindell has also collected donations from attendees at his event to fund his devices, which he said would be sold for less than $500. Additionally, some of Lindell’s customers have expressed their support for him and his products by using his promo code “WLT” at MyPillow.com, which gives them discounts and helps him fight back against the boycotts and lawsuits he faces.
Lindell has said that he will not file for bankruptcy and that he hopes that the Supreme Court will hear his case. He has also said that he is considering running for governor of Minnesota in 2024.
