As more competent and experienced people left his campaign over time, Donald Trump replaced them with increasingly incompetent, sycophantic hangers on.
People like Rudy Giuliani and Jared Kushner were given major roles. And somehow, a pillow entrepreneur and former crack addict also became a part of Trump’s circle.
According to Phil Rucker and Carol Leonning’s new book, I, Alone Can Fix It, Trump respected Mike Lindell. The constant stream of My Pillow commercials on Fox News led Trump to believe Lindell was some kind of ad wizard.
The Washington Post scribes write:
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“Unwilling to cede control over the campaign’s ads, with millions of dollars at stake for himself and other consultants, Brad Parscale said, ‘Let’s compete.’ Turning to Kushner, who controlled all major decisions on the campaign, Parscale said, ‘Jared, give us a hundred thousand dollars—fifty thousand dollars to my company and fifty thousand dollars to MyPillow’s company—and have the ads on Fox say, ‘If you’re going to support Donald Trump, grab your phone now and dial 88022 now.’ Prospecting commercials. See which one gets more sign-ups for less cost.'”
Not Surprisingly, Lindell was crushed by the experienced campaign manager. A Trump confidant told the authors, “Trump is so bad at marketing, you don’t understand. He’s great at marketing ideas, great at branding—unbelievable brander. Obviously great at messaging because he’s the best gaslighter in history. But horrible at how marketing works—how to buy TV ads, how digital works. He doesn’t understand.”
And while Lindell might have failed here, he is still all in on Team Trump. The pillow guy is still telling anyone who listen that he will get the election results overturned.
Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.
