MyPillow founder Mike Lindell tragically revealed this week on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast that the IRS has launched “an all-out attack” on his company over his political views.
“It started in California. Now there’s three other states that are coming at MyPillow. And Steve, it’s disgusting. They just keep attacking. Now they’re going after our employees. They made it very personal,” he told Bannon.
“This is something that hasn’t happened in 15 years, and all of a sudden there’s 5 IRS audits against MyPillow in three different years,” he added, according to Newsweek.
“The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
Deuteronomy 31:8…….— Mike Lindell (@realMikeLindell) September 9, 2023
Lindell further accused the IRS of trying to shutter his “call centers” — which he said are in fact just “home moms” working remotely — by accusing him of withholding their payroll taxes. His claim is that the moms work as freelancers and not employees, meaning he doesn’t have to pay payroll taxes.
“They want to silence my voice. They know the only way they can win now is to not have Donald Trump become our next president. And they know I’m out there trying to secure our election platform, Steve, so what they’ve done is an all-out attack on MyPillow to silence me — to run us out of money, to get rid of my employees,” he said, as seen in a video published by MTN.
“And what they’ve done right now — this is just recent — they’ve done an ’employee withholding tax’ audit. All my call centers, these home moms that work from home that take your calls, they work on commission everybody. Everyone works on commission. Most call centers went that way since the China virus. Well, now they want to take away MyPillow’s call centers. They want to take away their jobs. And we’re fighting back.”
Thank you everyone for your support! Please help our efforts to secure our election platforms and save our country!https://t.co/4KPXTk9ZYK
— Mike Lindell (@realMikeLindell) September 9, 2023
This is one of a number of attacks Lindell has faced in recent years. Last month he revealed that American Express had slashed his company’s credit line.
“Out of the blue, they took our credit line from a million dollars down to $100,000. Just cripples MyPillow. No reason, no explanation, just dropped it down last Tuesday,” he told Bannon at the time, according to Insider.
Months earlier in July, he was reportedly forced to auction off equipment after suffering a retail sales loss totaling over $100 million because retailers had abandoned him.
“The auction is being held on K-BID Online Auctions and is set to close on July 18, 2023. MyPillow is auctioning off 824 items, according to the listing page. Various items were up for grabs, including a 2005 Dodge Sprinter Van with a ‘cracked windshield,’ Apple iMacs, and a stained ottoman,” Insider reported at the time.
“Lindell told the Minnesota television station WCCO that the auction was a response to a change toward a direct-to-consumer business strategy. Lindell added that MyPillow needed to deal with an excess inventory so employees could keep working.”
“We have all this retail stuff,” he reportedly said on a Facebook livestream. “The retailers have abandoned us. What are we supposed to do, everybody? Just paperweights there? No, we are auctioning it off.”
“Before they did this to MyPillow, we were so big that we needed like four times of the equipment we had right now to make retail packaging, to make the retail pillows. So my guys said, ‘Hey, can we get rid of some of this stuff and sublease part of that building?’ Which we said, ‘Fine,'” he added.
Roughly a year and a half earlier in February of 2022, his client status with Minnesota Bank & Trust was terminated by the bank because of concerns about his reputation.
“Lindell [said] he had nine accounts at the bank and none were related to his main MyPillow business. He said one account at the bank was connected to his website Frank Speech and another was linked to the Lindell Recovery Network, the pillow CEO’s platform for people with addiction,” Insider reported at the time.
He added that he was “disgusted” by the bank and also accused it of “de-banking” and “canceling” him.
“They just said, ‘Mike Lindell’s in the public eye, and we don’t want to be part of the news.’ And now they’re in the news, aren’t they? They are evil for canceling us,” he said.
He also theorized that “someone” had “gotten to” the bank and convinced them to drop him.
“I’ve been in the news every day for a long time now. They just want to attack Mike Lindell and close his accounts. That’s what I think,” he said.