GoKawiilA photograph of Mike Lindell cut out in black and white and set against a field of bright red. The image has been scribbled on in the manner of graffiti.
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Monstrous defeats keep coming for Mike Lindell, the notorious entrepreneur behind the MyPillow brand and one-time advisor to Donald Trump.
According to Straight Arrow News, a clique of hackers known as “Play” is claiming to have accessed a huge chunk of private data from MyPillow, which it’s now holding hostage. Per the outlet, which viewed a communique from the gang, the hackers now have access to “private and personal confidential data, clients’ documents, budget, payroll, IDs, taxes, finance information and etc.”
Lindell’s company has been given until Friday, May 29 to respond — or else its data will be published online, the hackers threatened. The amount they’re trying to extort hasn’t been disclosed, and neither the hackers nor MyPillow responded to Straight Arrow‘s requests for comment.
Play first appeared in 2022, when it orchestrated cyber attacks throughout the US, Brazil, Germany, and Switzerland, among others. Their targets tend to be those associated with government functionaries, like the Argentinian judiciary, and an IT firm contracted by the Swiss Federal Department of Finance.
In that vein, a successful attack on Lindell would be a major trophy. The entrepreneur first met Trump in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, a relationship which blossomed as the would-be president ferried the increasingly crankish Lindell around rallies across the country.
In 2020, Lindell briefly served as Trump’s reelection campaign chair, then nearly ran for governor of Minnesota with his blessings. Later in November of 2022, Lindell ran for Chair of the Republican National Committee, though he lost after receiving only 2.4 percent of the total votes.
Now in 2026, the MyPillow founder is once again running for governor of Minnesota, having filed all the corresponding paperwork — which is more than he did last election cycle. That said, the hack comes as his finances and personal life are now under perhaps more scrutiny than they’ve ever been. Given his ties to Trump, who appears to be backing him again in the 2026 election, there could conceivably be some fascinating details lurking in the MyPillow archives.
Whether Lindell can pony up to keep them hidden remains to be seen: in April of 2025 he admitted that he didn’t even have “5 cents” to his name, owing to an avalanche of civil suits and federal investigations stemming from his political antics.
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