Don Lemon has confirmed that he would seriously consider running for president.
The former CNN anchor and current host of The Don Lemon Show revealed his ambitions during the Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit on May 6 in London.
In a panel conversation with journalist Kara Swisher, Lemon was asked about a viral clip from his Pod Save America interview, in which he said, “I could definitely run this country a lot better than Donald Trump.”
Swisher played this clip for the audience, suggesting that a “squirrel” could run the country better than the current president.
“I think that was my point, Kara,” he joked. “So you’re a squirrel?” she asked.
Lemon, 60, provided more context, saying, “People stop me all the time and ask me, ‘Would you consider running for office?’ I actually do think I can run this country better than Donald Trump.”
Swisher asked whether, “ridiculous speculation” aside, Lemon would seriously consider entering politics. He responded definitively, “I would.”
As the audience clapped, Lemon reacted, “Wow.”
“You’re going to go right to fricking president?” Swisher then asked.
“Why not?” the Emmy Award-winning journalist responded.
“I’m a man of a certain age,” he continued. “I’ve been around long enough, I’ve worked hard. People laugh, but I’m a completely self-made person, I didn’t come from wealth, I did not have $400 million to start. I’ve made it to the top of my profession, I’ve also started a business, and I’m a self-made millionaire from a country where my ancestors were enslaved, so I think that’s a pretty big accomplishment.”
At the journalism summit, Lemon also joked that prominent members of the Trump administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, would not survive a “Lemon administration.”
At the prospect of running for president, Lemon previously told Pod Save America, “I know people are going to think I’m crazy. This is going to be the headline, and people are going to laugh about it: ‘I think I could be president of the United States.’”
“Why can’t I think about running for office?” he said at the time. “Why can’t I think about being president of the United States? Did anybody think Barack Obama—as he says, ‘This guy with a funny name, from a mixed background’—that he would become president? I don’t have an aspiration to become president. But I do think that I could run this country a lot better than Donald Trump...”
A fierce Trump critic, Lemon was arrested by a dozen FBI agents after reporting from an anti-ICE protest in a Minnesota church in February. He pleaded not guilty to federal civil rights charges later that month. Lemon’s attorney called the charges “baseless.”
The journalist’s arrest was ordered by Trump’s former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who faced severe backlash in return.
Lemon spoke about his arrest in an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, saying that the Trump administration aims to “embarrass” and “intimidate.”
