Mike Lindell
Mike Lindell

The ex-President Trump sycophant Mike Lindell is a PR marvel. There is no media coverage about him that doesn't first identify Lindell as the "My Pillow Guy," and in case you've missed his ubiquitous ads appearing across all media platforms, he makes and sells pillows he claims promote better sleep.

I don't know about you, but my pillow works just fine.

Lindell has figured out how to keep himself and his product in front of the public by proclaiming himself the ayatollah of non-existent voting fraud. According to Lindell, he has iron-clad "proof" the Chinese government stole the 2020 election on behalf of President Joe Biden.

The only problem is, he has yet to produce that proof. His own paid cyber security expert said recently the "packets" of data Lindell was always waving around prove nothing.

Unfazed by that failure, Lindell has repeatedly said Trump will be reinstated as president. The first date was August 13, the day after his bogus "cyber symposium" closed, where he and a parade of delusional Trump dead-enders staged a kabuki theater in South Dakota that received wall-to-wall coverage on the Trump propaganda outlet One America News.

Sadly, a lot of mainstream media got sucked into this freak show because, well, freaks equal ratings. P.T. Barnum knew the grotesque sold sideshow tickets, and Lindall might just be a better promoter than P.T., since broadcast and digital media weren't around in his day. But I can think of nothing more grotesque, more anti-American, than undermining public confidence in America's most hallowed democratic institution, free and fair elections.

Facing eroding support among the Orange Man's true believers, however, Lindell moved the goalposts again, declaring Trump will triumphantly return to the White House by New Year's Day, 2022, after he and he alone proves, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the election was stolen by Chinese cyber villains.

Lindell cannot possibly believe his own sheepdip. He was smart enough to build a small fortune selling pillows on television. What he has managed to do is keep the media spotlight on himself and by extension, his pillow business, garnering sustained earned media coverage most publicists can only dream about.

A cynical strategy? Of course, but the sideshow must go on, and pillows must be sold... and they'd better keep selling because Lindell is facing lawsuits for defaming Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic that could end up with Mike using one of his pillows to sleep on a park bench.

***

Kevin Foley owns KEF Media in Atlanta.