MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is touting his new online shopping platform, where he says "entrepreneurs" can sell products without fear of being "copied by China."
Lindell told Newsweek over the phone on Tuesday night that his MyStore site was "like a mini-Amazon with USA entrepreneurs and products," while acknowledging that it was "much smaller" than the online retail behemoth.
During an appearance on the War Room podcast of Steve Bannon, ex-adviser to former President Donald Trump, Lindell said earlier on Tuesday that the store would be selling "every kind of product that you can imagine."
Bannon praised Lindell for being "so sophisticated" by launching the platform, before suggesting that Amazon's Marketplace allowed sellers to "put their product up and then be ripped off by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party)."
"Yeah that's right, Steve," Lindell responded. "Back when I invented MyPillow, I had the same problem all the entrepreneurs have in our country: You get put up on Amazon ... and then the next thing ... they are [being] copied by China."
"Basically, it's theft of your product," he continued. "So what we've done over the last three years, my team here and others, they've vetted entrepreneurs and USA-made products, and now we have a platform [that] has thousands and thousands of products."
Lindell told Newsweek that the store had been in the works for an extended period but was only now having its "big launch" because he was previously too "busy with trying to get rid of electronic voting machines."
He said that MyStore differs from Amazon Marketplace because it does not "allow the copycats and the made-in-China products." In the event of products sold on the site being "stolen" by China off platform, Lindell said, he would offer legal help to sellers.
He added that the vetting process of his platform had been beefed up to include a team of eight to 10 people after it was discovered that "a lot of people were trying to sneak in" to sell Chinese-made products.
Newsweek reached out for comment to Amazon via email on Tuesday night.
MyStore includes a special section that features "Mike's Likes"—products that Lindell personally endorses, although he told Newsweek that the section had not recently been updated.
At the time of publication, products in the endorsement section included tick removers, multiple "NoStench" products, meat sticks and a "temporary tooth replacement kit."
Meanwhile, advertisements for MyPillow returned to Fox News earlier on Tuesday after having been dropped for roughly one month. During a War Room appearance last month, Lindell claimed that "cancel culture" was to blame for the absence.
However, Fox News said at the time that the ads were dropped because MyPillow had failed to keep up with its bills, with a Fox News spokesperson telling Newsweek that the network would be "happy to accept their advertising" as soon as the "account is paid."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
