Mike Lindell: MyPillow chief’s influence grows as devoted backer of Trump’s big lie

Mike Lindell dedicated tens of millions of dollars to exposing the supposedly massive electoral fraud that he cannot prove. Composite: Guardian/Reuters

Members of the crowd cheer when a man, wearing a blue suit and a long red striped tie, walks by their section in the Covelli Centre. Some of the rally attendees stand as the man smiles and waves at them, applauding him before he climbs the steps to the press risers.

Surprisingly, the man at the center of this praise is not Donald Trump, even though the former US president is the host of the rally in the hardscrabble rust belt city of Youngstown, Ohio.