Mike Lindell, the founder and CEO of MyPillow, has been accused of marking some products down to a price that mirrors a neo-Nazi slogan.
MyPillow posted an advertisement on X, formerly Twitter, on September 20 that their “Standard Classic MyPillow” which usually sells for between $29.99 and $49.98, was being marked down to $14.88.
This specific price of $14.88 raised eyebrows as, to keen observers, it is affiliated with white supremacists and online neo-Nazi groups.
The post has been viewed more than 4 million times and generated nearly 2,000 comments.
Lindell has been contacted for comment via the MyPillow site and his online platform FrankSpeech.
Seth Cotlar, a history professor at Willamette University in Oregon, wrote on his Bluesky account that the ad is a “disturbing wink at Nazis.”
Cotlar added: “I doubt Lindell is behind this or would even get the reference, but that doesn’t really matter.”
This is because, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the number 88 is used in white supremacist circles as shorthand for Heil Hitler. The letter H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, so two Hs together are “Heil Hitler” to those in the know.
Additionally, per the ADL, the number 14 refers to the “14-word slogan,” a phrase coined by white supremacist David Lane.
Lane, who was a member of white supremacist group The Order said: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” Those in such circles who wish to refer back to this slogan do so by citing the number 14.
Whether aware of the numerical nod or not, the pillow ad reached neo-Nazi accounts online.
The advertisement, which has 8,000 likes on X, and 415 likes on Facebook, has been reposted and commented on by openly white supremacist accounts.
One such account, under the name of Balkanomic, reposted their order of the pillows saying: “$14.88? How could you pass up such a great deal?”
Another account called RadioWeimar, said: “Let’s gooo MyPillow!”
Mike Lindell at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida on April 4, 2023. A university professor has called the priced down amount of one of Lindell’s MyPillow products a “disturbing wink to Nazis.”
Octavio Jones/Getty images
Previous reporting from Newsweek on Mike Lindell road-mapped his rise to fame. He has had a remarkable life, going from a college dropout, to selling pillows in a mall kiosk, to becoming a drug addict, to becoming a self-made millionaire.
Lindell’s memoir What Are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO, which came out in 2020, details how a viral infomercial which he ad-libbed helped his business to grow from a $3-million company with 60 employees, to one worth $102 million with more than 500 employees.
Lindell then lost more than $100 million from MyPillow following his 2020 election denial. His product was pulled from major outlets such as Kohl’s, Walmart, and Bed Bath & Beyond, who cited low customer demand.
He became an ardent Donald Trump supporter in 2016, and was forced to pay $5 million to computer forensics expert Robert Ziedman in 2024 after making a public pledge to pay that sum to anyone who could disprove that the 2020 election was rigged in President Joe Biden‘s favor.
Ziedman proved that Lindell’s account of the election being “rigged” was incorrect and Lindell was forced to hand over the money.
As well as running MyPillow, Lindell hosts the website FrankSpeech, which is a platform for right-wing pundits such as Diamond and Silk, and Mike Crispi, as well as his own thoughts.
Lindell also reportedly paid for Rudy Giuliani‘s plane ticket to the Republican National Convention in 2024, as well as for his hotel room.
