The arrest of Don Lemon by President Donald Trump‘s Department of Justice sent shockwaves in the media and political world, greatly escalating his years-long attacks on the free press.
But Trump’s animosity toward Lemon, a former CNN anchor who frequently criticized his administration during his first term, dates back nearly a decade.
In 2017, Trump, who was known to be a frequent viewer of CNN despite his known loathing of the cable news network, called out Lemon’s then-show, “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon,” during a White House press conference. Trump complained that Lemon’s show was too “anti-Trump.”
“You just take a look at that show. That is a constant hit. The panel is almost always exclusive anti-Trump. The good news is he doesn’t have good ratings,” said Trump. “But the panel is almost exclusive anti-Trump, and the hatred and venom coming from his mouth. The hatred coming from other people on your network.”
In 2018, Trump called out Lemon by name after the journalist interviewed NBA star LeBron James, who accused the president of using sports to divide the country. At the time, Trump was heavily critical of athletes who were protesting the National Anthem in solidarity with those against police brutality.
“Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon,” Trump wrote on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.”
Following the personal attack, Lemon blasted Trump for the “nasty, hateful swipe” and called out the president’s pattern of calling Black people dumb, among other things.
“This president constantly denigrates people of color and women too,” Lemon said on his show. “But then again, this is the same man who, for years, tried to deny the legitimacy of America’s first Black president by questioning over and over and over whether Barack Obama was born in this country.”
Trump latched on to his “dumbest man on television” insult years later in 2020, tweeting, “Don Lemon, the dumbest man on television (with terrible ratings!)” after Lemon laughed uncontrollably during a CNN segment with Rick Wilson and Wajahat Ali, who mocked the president, accusing him and his supporters of not being intelligent.
Following Lemon’s live reporting at an anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in Minnesota, Trump revived his years-long attacks on the now-independent journalist during a White House press conference marking the official one-year mark of his second term.
“All ICE wants to do is get them out of our country, bring them to prisons and jails and mental institutions. They’re patriots, and they have to be abused by guys like Don Lemon, who’s, you know, a loser, lightweight. I saw him, the way he walked in that church. It was terrible,” Trump told reporters.
Trump said on Truth Social that Lemon and protesters in Minnesota should be “thrown in jail, or thrown out of the country.”
Lemon’s Thursday night arrest, while extraordinary, came as no surprise. After federal magistrate judge dismissed a criminal complaint brought by the DOJ for Lemon’s arrest, Trump’s Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said of Lemon, “The freedom of the press extends to a lot of different areas. It does not extend to somebody just trespassing and being embedded with a group of rioters and being part of a group that storms a church.”
He continued, “We are absolutely investigating that conduct and the fact that that man, that Mr. Lemon thought that was a good idea to do that, and then to race away from it, saying it was freedom of the press, we’ll see. We’ll see.”
Lemon warned that the Trump administration would eventually find some other way to arrest him. “I stand proud and I stand tall…They’re going to try again and they’re going to try again. And guess what? Here I am,” he said on his podcast “The Don Lemon Show.”
The award-winning journalist added, “That’s not going to stop me from being a journalist. You’re not going to diminish my voice. Go ahead. Make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel if you want. Just do it. Because I’m not going anywhere.”
