Mike Lindell wants to eliminate Minnesota's income tax in budget proposal: Full interview

(FOX 9) - FOX 9 has extended an invitation to all the candidates polling above 5% in both the Minnesota Governor and Senate primary races to appear on our All Day program for an interview. On Thursday, former MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell appeared as he released his budget plan that includes a proposal to eliminate the state income tax.

His Republican opponent, Kendall Qualls, appeared earlier this week and House Speaker Lisa Demuth is scheduled to join us on Monday.

Lindell on opposition from the Minnesota GOP

"Their endorsements have not been picked by the people of Minnesota since 1994. They haven't won in 24 years, and Alex Plechash should step down. He's been—he's attacked me since I announced I was running December 8th of last year, and it's a shame when they get up to Duluth and they have this fiasco up there where the voting machines went down. Kendall Qualls wins their endorsement, and they haven't even helped him. They've been helping their Lisa Demuth, who they let run, even though she broke her promise and said she would not run without that –  if she didn't get their endorsement. So you can kind of see a parallel here. I've been polling number one with the people in the last seven polls. Now I'm like 80 or 90 percent. It's very high now. And when he started attacking after the president endorsed me, it has been one nonsense thing after another. 'Mike doesn't live here. Mike doesn't have a driver's license. Mike gives out pillows at parades.' It's just, you know, this is just an attack by our own party. I am the only one that can beat Amy Klobuchar, and we've hit with the plan we have and now putting out our budget today to make Minnesota the 10th state that will be income tax-free, state income tax-free."

Lindell on whether he meets Minnesota's residency requirements

"First of all, this has been brought up months ago, and I had to give it to the GOP even to qualify to go to their convention. They have my pay stubs from August 10th when I moved back here of 2025. My pay stubs that said I'm paying taxes in Minnesota. I came here six—I could have waited another six months and still qualified for governor, but I came back. I could have avoided our state income tax for another six months, but I said no, I'm coming back. I live here now 100%, and that was August 10th of 2025. Then a month later I got my driver's license here and registered. They were sent to the Star Tribune, who attacked me there. They were sent the picture of that when they said I wasn't registered, and they didn't apologize when they found out I was. This is all out there in the public. 100% I can run for governor. He's doing this to put doubt in people's mind, reaching out to an office. It has nothing to do with this. Steve Simon, who, by the way, we put up stuff on our website where he has actually committed crimes in this election, him and Keith Ellison. If you want to go there, he sends it to a guy. If this could would be the Minnesota Supreme Court, it would not be if there was any violation what's our or any doubt. So he's doing this to put doubt in people's head because the election is Tuesday and I'm polling like 80 or 90 percent [on prediction markets]. He's a very, not a good guy."

Lindell on eliminating Minnesota's income tax

"The budget just got posted on our website, LindellGov.com. So you can see the... Go there now, and you can see it's 82 pages, but you'll see an outline that's a lot easier to understand, everybody. And one of the main components is primary, or direct primary care, our healthcare system. We're going to save about $10 billion. At my company I was formerly with now, MyPillow, each employee would have saved 50%. The corporation, MyPillow, would save 30%. But this is – this comes on the heels of Governor Walz passing or actually embracing the big beautiful bill three weeks ago, which made this possible. So direct primary care now with part of that bill that people can go to this plan I have. And it lines up beautifully. Couldn't be better timing of what happened there. There's so many things in there. For example, we talked about the illegals that we have, 1,400 illegals at a cost of $159,000 a year to us taxpayers. It's, I think, $159 million a year that we're housing these criminals, illegals. And now with ICE just coming in with the detention center, that's perfect timing. The day I'm governor, take these illegals and get them out of here to do their time in their own countries and never come back."

Lindell on report that he supports amnesty for undocumented immigrants

"No, that's a lie. I never said that. The Examiner came out and used the word amnesty, and it went viral. I've never been for amnesty. I never have been, and I never will be. That was a media hit job. You can check the budget out. If you go to the budget, you'll see all the illegals and what we're going to do with them and the employers that employ them. And if they do it anymore, they're going to jail."

Viewer question: Why are you fit to run the state?

"[Responding to viewer claim] MyPillow's never had a bankruptcy. That's another media lie, everybody. Never had a bankruptcy. I guided Minnesota's –  or I built one of the biggest companies Minnesota has ever had, hiring thousands and thousands of employees. Built it from scratch, going around my state of Minnesota, selling my pillows out of a pickup truck and trailer to selling 85 million MyPillows. We've never declared bankruptcy. We were attacked by our own government under Operation Arctic Frost and the machine companies. And MyPillow is stronger than ever. It's still standing. We guided it through some of the worst times in history. I got MyPillow, I was able to sustain that and guide them through attacks. I can fix Minnesota and I've been working six months on this plan. So that's another media lie. We've never been [through] bankruptcy."

Lindell on building bipartisan support

"I believe I can do that better than any candidate in history of Minnesota and around the country because what I'm proposing, if you see my budget today, everybody, all Minnesotans, and it doesn't matter who you are, it's going to help you. It's going to make Minnesota affordable again. So if I'm blocked, I don't care if it's a Republican or a Democrat, I'm going to be the most transparent governor you've ever seen. And everyone in this state's going know, why are you blocking these things that help us as a state and as our people in the state? So it's about what's getting out there. And my private sector plan too is going – the Minnesota Nice part – that's going help subsidize this budget. You guys can check that out. But it's going unite us all, the parties and the people of Minnesota. We all want to make Minnesota affordable again. 100,000 people have left under Governor Walz's watch – have left Minnesota. It's shameful."