Pillow talk: Brands cut ties with My Pillow CEO, a Trump loyalist

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell has repeated baseless claims that the 2020 US election was fraudulent and that outgoing President Donald Trump won.

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell said Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl's Corp, HEB Grocery Co and Wayfair Inc are dropping his products [File: Bloomberg]

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. will stop selling products from bedding company My Pillow, citing poor sales for a brand that has been embroiled in controversy over its founder’s pro-Trump views.

“We have been rationalizing our assortment to discontinue a number of underperforming items and brands. This includes the My Pillow product line,” the company said in a statement.

Mike Lindell, chief executive officer of My Pillow Inc., said in an interview that Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl’s Corp., HEB Grocery Co. and Wayfair Inc. are dropping My Pillow products. Calls on social media to boycott the brand have grown after Lindell, an ardent loyalist of President Donald Trump, has continued to insist that Trump won the election.

Retailers “keep getting attacked and this all started because of the election fraud that I uncovered,” Lindell said. “I’m not backing down. It doesn’t matter how many companies drop, that’s their choice.”

Courts have repeatedly shot down Trump’s legal efforts to overturn the election results, and no evidence of widespread fraud has materialized. That hasn’t stopped Trump and his supporters from using the claims to galvanize support and underpin fund-raising efforts.

Representatives from the other retailers didn’t respond to requests for comment. As of earlier on Tuesday, My Pillow products were still available on the Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s websites. Retailers generally sell discontinued products until inventories are depleted.

Bed Bath & Beyond’s action echoes moves made by other retailers in recent years, which have dropped Trump-affiliated products amid growing controversy related to the president. When Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus cut Ivanka Trump’s fashion line in 2017, each cited poor performance as the reason.

The recent riot at the Capitol by Trump supporters has prompted major U.S. retailers, including Walmart Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Best Buy Co., to halt political contributions to Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying President-Elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Source: Bloomberg