Don Lemon, the ousted CNN anchor turned podcast host, is now floating the idea of a 2028 presidential run, a move that has drawn more ridicule than respect, including from his own former colleagues.
According to the Gateway Pundit, Lemon, a left-wing media figure and longtime critic of President Donald Trump, has been openly musing about a White House bid despite having no record in public office and little evidence of grassroots enthusiasm. Even within the liberal media ecosystem that once elevated him, his latest gambit is being treated less as a serious political project and more as a vanity exercise from a man who cannot accept his slide into cultural irrelevance.
Lemon, who launched his own show after being fired by CNN in 2023, recently claimed there is a 65, 70% chance he will run for president and has suggested he would be a better commander in chief than President Trump, touting his supposed appeal to voters. Yet the very people who worked alongside him at CNN appear unconvinced, if not openly amused, by his self-promotion and inflated sense of political viability.
A CNN staffer, speaking to Fox News Digital, mocked Lemons ambitions by throwing his own past words back at him. Doesnt someone, according to Don Lemon, have to be in their prime to run for president? That would certainly rule Don out, the staffer said, highlighting the disconnect between Lemons rhetoric and his current circumstances.
The remark referenced Lemons notorious 2023 on-air claim that thenRepublican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was past her prime at age 51, a comment that enraged female colleagues and sparked public backlash. Lemon, now 60 and nearly six years older than Haley, later apologized for the remark, but the episode has become a symbol of his arrogance and double standards.
Another CNN staffer reacted with a mix of sarcasm and realism to the idea of a Lemon campaign. I love it. Bring it on, they told Fox News Digital, before adding that I think political office is probably appealing to him. I think a presidential run is obviously not serious, but he could engage in it as a way to launchpad into another office.
That same staffer underscored the fundamental unseriousness of Lemons flirtation with the presidency, noting the discipline real candidates must show. If Don has the itch, there are ways to scratch it that are more serious. It takes a single-minded focus, and he cant be a media personality and do it at the same time, they continued, suggesting Lemon is chasing attention rather than public service.
For conservatives who have long viewed Lemon as a partisan scold rather than a journalist, his presidential posturing only confirms how detached many media elites are from political reality. In a crowded Democratic field already brimming with ambitious career politicians, the notion that Don Lemon would be anything more than an early casualtyout before the Iowa caucus, as critics put itspeaks less to his prospects and more to the media bubble that once convinced him he was the main character in American politics.
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