Mike Lindell, the inventor and CEO of MyPillow, announced Friday his company will convert 75 percent of their production from making pillows into making masks in an effort to combat the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
Lindell told Fox News he is working with the Trump administration on the type of masks needed. “Obviously, we specialize in cotton and we found out different materials that they didn’t want — latex. So, finally, we got the final prototype three days ago,” he said. But after Trump invited Lindell to speak at a press briefing in the White House Rose Garden Monday afternoon, verified blue checkmarks and members of the media did not take kindly to Lindell’s remarks to Americans.
Lindell, who just announced his company will produce 50,000 masks a day by the end of the week, was mocked for sharing his faith from behind the lectern, and encouraging Americans to turn to God in this time of crisis.
“God gave us grace on November 8, 2016 to change the course we were on,” Lindell said. “God had been taken out of our schools and lives, a nation had turned its back on God. I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the Word. Read our Bibles and spend time with our families.”
The president invited a special guest to speak during his coronavirus task force briefing today: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
Lindell shared how his company was helping them deal with the outbreak and effusively praised Trump for his pandemic stewardship https://t.co/PHNEhbzj2h pic.twitter.com/0smIPunMiW
— POLITICO (@politico) March 30, 2020
An executive editor at CNN retweeted a video of Lindell’s appearance with the sarcastic caption, “In case you were wondering what My Pillow is doing in a time of coronavirus.” That’s odd, because Lindell just said he spent three days converting a 200,000-square-foot factory into a facility to produce millions of masks for American health-care workers, so we know exactly what he’s been doing during the public health crisis.
In case you were wondering what My Pillow is doing in a time of coronavirus. https://t.co/W3ocMJe7Ym
— Ram Ramgopal (@RamCNN) March 30, 2020
MSNBC’s Ali Velshi also weighed in:
https://twitter.com/AliVelshi/status/1244739464414613505
As did MSNBC’s Joy Reid:
So my Tiger King binge was interrupted by a text saying the CEO of MyPillow is now part of the presidential briefings on COVID19 … please tell me this is a prank.
— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) March 30, 2020
American hospitals have refrigerator trucks full of dead bodies parked around back, but sure, let’s all hear from the My Pillow guy.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) March 31, 2020
Mediaite Senior Columnist John Ziegler:
Lets be very clear, Mike Lindell, with whom I was once forced to be on at least an hour-long conference call, is WAY more insane than Trump. It’s not even close. Even Diamond & Silk are far more credible than he is. https://t.co/EqiScTfjuP
— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) March 30, 2020
https://twitter.com/JamieOGrady/status/1244739234587725831
Here’s popular leftist YouTuber Kyle Kulinski:
We have dead bodies piling up in refrigerated trucks in Queens because the morgues are overflowing and the ‘my pillow’ guy is saying god gave us Trump at the covid press conference. pic.twitter.com/8nf5gUOlg1
— Secular Talk🎙 (@KyleKulinski) March 31, 2020
Norm Ornstein is a contributing editor at The Atlantic:
Fact: Mike Lindell is an awful human being. An utter embarrassment to my home state of Minnesota.
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) March 30, 2020
Loyal NeverTrumpers enjoyed bashing Lindell and his faith as well:
Sounds like all I missed was a “My Pillow” commercial. Cool.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) March 30, 2020
https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1244766537246035971
As an ex-crack addict who established a recovery network to help addicts, Lindell is widely known for his testimony of becoming sober after years of addiction, starting MyPillow out of his basement, and finding a transformative Christian faith. “Jesus showed up, and I did a full surrender,” he says.
