MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, speaking with a reporter from Right Side Broadcasting Network at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021. (ERIN SCHAFF, New York Times/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom. This editorial was written on behalf of the board by Star Tribune Opinion intern Noor Adwan, a 2023 graduate of the University of Minnesota.

•••

"Go woke, go broke" is a phrase conservatives often use to ding liberal-owned businesses that have gone under.

But what happens when you go full-blown MAGA?

MyPillow, the Chaska-based manufacturing company owned by prominent election denier Mike Lindell, raised eyebrows over the weekend when more than 850 items described as "surplus industrial equipment" — including freight trucks, forklifts and pallet jacks — went up for auction online.

In a Monday phone conversation, Lindell attributed the downsize to a rough few years in retail sales.

"Basically, it's a reaction to these horrible box stores that decided they would cancel MyPillow," he told an editorial writer.

He went on to say the company faced around $100 million per year in lost sales in 2021 and 2022. He also said the company is consolidating manufacturing space in Shakopee.

Major retailers including Kohl's, Bed Bath & Beyond and Walmart stopped stocking MyPillow products after Lindell began peddling conspiracy theories related to election fraud. (While Walmart pulled MyPillow products from its brick-and-mortar stores, they are still available on the retailer's website.)

Dominion Voting Systems, one of the voting machine companies that has taken legal action against Lindell in response to his election fraud theories, has pushed back against his claims of MyPillow's financial hardship, arguing instead that the CEO used his election fraud claims to boost sales.

Lindell is no stranger to financial mishaps. In March, he claimed his company had to borrow $10 million as a result of his legal battles with various voting machine companies, including Dominion. In April, he lost an arbitration case and was ordered to pay $5 million to a Las Vegas man who won his "Prove Mike Wrong" challenge, in which Lindell offered the sum to anyone who disproved data that he claimed proved that China had interfered in the 2020 election. (Spoiler alert: The data was bogus.) Lindell says he is challenging the arbitration ruling.

The auction, which closes July 18, has invited questions online, namely: "Is MyPillow going under?" It's a reasonable question to ask — especially considering the dubious efficacy of a business strategy that's hostile toward big-box retailers and, frankly, most sensible people.

Lindell, naturally, is insistent it's not.

"They tried everything to destroy MyPillow," he said. "We're not going anywhere."