Don Lemon, the former CNN newscaster, told people who have asked him about a White House run that he believes he would be a better president than the current occupant, he said in an interview on the “Uncloseted Media” podcast reported as of October 2026.
“And I said, ‘Oh, well, definitely. I think I could be a better president than Donald Trump,’” Lemon said, describing his answer to those who raise the subject with him.
Lemon put the chances of a presidential run “one day” at better than even in the same interview, giving odds of 65 to 70 percent, comments reported Oct. 7, 2026. Host Spencer Macnaughton asked him about remarks he made earlier in 2026 about whether he was serious about seeking higher office in the next presidential cycle. Lemon did not back away from that earlier answer. He attached a number to it instead.
A Choice Between Two Jobs
Lemon framed the question as a choice between two ways of doing the same job. He said he is weighing whether he would accomplish more as a journalist or by seeking the presidency, and he described the question as still unresolved.
Lemon said watching candidates with an easy rapport with crowds nudged him toward the idea. On the road alongside those politicians, he said, voters approached him and talked to him much as they talk to people actually on the ballot.
Lemon also suggested campaigning and continuing as a media personality at the same time, he told Macnaughton. “maybe that’s a way of running that has not been mined,” he said.
Lemon attached a caveat, and not a small one. He acknowledged the scale of a national campaign, saying a White House bid in this country demands full-time devotion from whoever undertakes it, and he said he would prefer to spend much of his time on reporting. The man quoting roughly two-to-one odds is also the man explaining why he might not do it.
No Ballot Line Chosen
Lemon has not made clear what ballot line he would seek, even if he jumps in. Plenty of observers assume a Democratic primary bid, given the political coloring of his cable news years. Lemon has pushed back on that assumption.
On his own show in late September, Lemon said people assume he is liberal and insisted, “I’m an independent.”
An independent run and a major-party primary are entirely different undertakings in ballot access, money and timing. Lemon has not said which route he would take, and he has given no indication of when he would make a formal decision. He has announced no filing, chosen no party and floated no launch date. The only hard number he has given on a presidential campaign is the one he gave Macnaughton: 65 to 70 percent.
From July Trial Balloon
Lemon first floated the possibility of running for higher office in July during an interview on the “Can’t Be Censored” podcast. He insisted then that he had no personal political ambitions. In the same conversation, he said he believed he would make a genuinely good president, on the condition that he could mount a campaign without pleading with donors for cash.
That fundraising caveat is the kind of line that tends to end presidential flirtations before they begin. Modern campaigns run on exactly the donor courtship Lemon says he would rather avoid. The alternatives — self-funding, or a groundswell of small-dollar enthusiasm — have worked for very few candidates.
Lemon’s public comments have moved in one direction. In July he was a broadcaster entertaining a hypothetical and disclaiming ambition. By the “Uncloseted Media” interview he was quantifying his likelihood and describing the presidency as one of two serious career options. Lemon said: “If the people want me, I’ll do it.”
Earlier in 2026, Lemon was hit with a felony indictment on federal civil rights and conspiracy crimes in connection with his reporting on an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest at a Minnesota church. Lemon argues that President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is targeting him over his criticism of the president.
