BREAKING: Trump Gives Mike Lindell His “Complete and Total” Endorsement in…

President Donald Trump threw his full weight behind Mike Lindell’s campaign for Minnesota governor this week, delivering a Truth Social endorsement that instantly reshaped a crowded three-way Republican primary just weeks before voters head to the polls.

The president’s message left no room for ambiguity, calling the MyPillow founder one of America’s greatest and most hardworking patriots and declaring that Lindell has his complete and total endorsement.

For Minnesota Republicans who have spent months debating which candidate gives the party its best shot at flipping the governor’s mansion, Trump’s move is a game changer.

The GOP field going into the August 11 primary included Lindell, Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who won the state party’s formal endorsement in May, and Kendall Qualls, a retired health care executive. All three had spent months courting Trump’s support, well aware that a presidential endorsement carries enormous weight with the party’s base heading into a general election matchup against a well-funded Democrat.

Trump did not hold back in his criticism of the man Lindell hopes to replace. Outgoing Governor Tim Walz, who ended his bid for a third term earlier this year amid a growing scandal, was described by the president as one of the worst and most incompetent governors in the history of the United States.

That scandal centers on allegations that as much as 9 billion dollars was stolen through fraudulent schemes tied to state-administered meal assistance programs for children, along with other services reimbursed through state agencies. For conservatives, the fraud scandal has become a defining symbol of Democrat mismanagement in Minnesota, and Trump’s endorsement message leaned directly into that narrative.

“Mike will be SPECTACULAR!!!” Trump wrote, adding that Lindell truly loves Minnesota and wants to bring it back from what the president called oblivion and embarrassment.

The president went on to praise Lindell’s personal sacrifices in fighting for election integrity, a cause Lindell has championed relentlessly since 2020, often at significant personal and financial cost.

That commitment to election integrity is central to Lindell’s political identity and, according to Trump, exactly why Minnesota needs him. Lindell has spent years pushing for the elimination of electronic voting machines in favor of hand-counted paper ballots, a position that resonates deeply with grassroots conservatives who remain skeptical of the reliability and security of computerized vote tabulation systems.

Told by a local Minnesota outlet that he hopes to eliminate voting machines statewide if elected, Lindell said the machines need to go, that they should be melted down and turned into something more useful, like prison bars.

Lindell’s advocacy has not come without cost. He has faced a string of defamation lawsuits tied to his statements about the 2020 election, including a suit brought by a company formerly known as Dominion that Lindell recently settled, and another brought by a former employee of a voting machine company that resulted in a judgment against him, which Lindell is appealing. A separate case brought by another voting technology firm resulted in a summary judgment loss for Lindell last year. Whatever one thinks of the legal outcomes, Lindell’s willingness to take on these fights publicly, at great personal financial risk, is precisely the kind of unwavering commitment that has earned him loyalty from the most energized wing of the Republican base, and evidently, from the president himself.

Reaction within Minnesota’s Republican establishment was not uniformly positive. Alex Plechash, chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota, issued an unusually sharp rebuke following the endorsement, pointing to Lindell’s decision to relocate from Minnesota to Texas and raising questions about unpaid property taxes and the qualifications of his running mate. Plechash argued that nominating a ticket with those vulnerabilities risks handing Democrats an easy target in November. Reasonable Republicans can disagree about primary strategy, and internal party debates like this one are a healthy sign of a party still working through its priorities. But Trump’s endorsement suggests the president believes Lindell’s authenticity and loyalty outweigh those concerns.

Recent polling gives some credence to the concerns raised by party officials. A Minnesota poll conducted in June found Demuth performing best in a hypothetical general election matchup against Democrat Amy Klobuchar, trailing 48 to 40 percent. Qualls posted statistically similar numbers. Lindell trailed further behind, down 53 to 36 percent. Polls at this stage of a race are a snapshot, not a prediction, and Trump’s endorsement itself is likely to shift the dynamics of the race in ways that make June polling largely obsolete. Endorsements from the president have repeatedly proven capable of transforming primary contests within days, and Minnesota Republicans should expect this one to be no different.

Klobuchar, the presumptive Democrat nominee who holds a commanding fundraising advantage and the formal backing of her party, wasted no time responding. She framed the choice for Minnesota voters as being between Trump’s pick and her own candidacy, a framing Republicans should recognize and be ready to counter head on. Klobuchar has represented Minnesota in the Senate for two decades and has never lost a statewide race, a track record Democrats are eager to remind voters of throughout the fall campaign.

Walz, for his part, said the endorsement did not surprise him, adding that Republicans will sort things out in the primary while everyone else gets their say in November. It is a comment dripping with the kind of detached condescension that has characterized much of the outgoing governor’s tenure, one marked by scandal, mismanagement and a stunning fraud investigation that unraveled on his watch.

Democrats in the state were quick to attempt to tie Lindell and Trump together as a package deal, with the state party chair describing Lindell as Minnesota’s own election denying Trump clone. That framing reveals more about Democrat anxiety than it does about Lindell’s actual candidacy. If Republicans in Minnesota are looking for a candidate willing to fight as hard for the state as Trump fought for the country, Lindell’s résumé of standing firm under legal and political pressure makes him exactly the kind of outsider primary voters have responded to in recent cycles nationwide.

Lindell, reacting to the news, said he had no advance notice the endorsement was coming and called it huge and exciting. He struck a note of independence as well, making clear that a Trump endorsement does not mean he intends to be a rubber stamp for every position out of Washington. Lindell said he plans to govern as Mike Lindell, not as an extension of the president, a distinction that may help address some of the concerns raised by establishment figures within the state party.

The timing of the endorsement is notable. It came just one day before Trump was set to deliver a national address focused on election security, a subject that has remained near the top of the president’s political priorities since 2020. Trump has continued to raise questions about the integrity of that election, and his choice to elevate Lindell, one of the most outspoken voices on that issue in the entire Republican Party, sends a clear signal about how central election integrity remains to the president’s broader political agenda heading into the 2026 midterms.

Minnesota is one of 36 states holding gubernatorial elections this November, and Republicans view it as a genuine pickup opportunity despite a challenging national environment. The state currently sits among a group of governorships Republicans hope to flip from Democrat control, and a Lindell victory in the primary, followed by a win in November, would represent a significant symbolic and practical victory for the party in a state that has not always been considered fertile ground for Republicans statewide.