Ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon agrees Trump played liberal network 'like puppets'

Former CNN host Don Lemon agreed with comedian Trevor Noah in a new interview that President Donald Trump has been playing his old network "like puppets" with publicity.

While appearing on Noah's "What Now?" podcast on Thursday, Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023, remarked how Trump's tweets would instantly become the "biggest thing" in an increasingly shrinking news cycle.

"By the way, now that you bring that up, did you guys at CNN ever know that he was playing you guys like puppets?" Noah asked. "Did you ever figure it out at some point?

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"Oh, yeah," Lemon replied. "I think, honestly, they maybe knew somewhere in the beginning, but it was good for business. Do you remember [Former CBS CEO] Les Moonves? He goes, ‘Trump is bad for the country, but he’s good for business.'"

Noah said that former CNN president Jeff Zucker has argued, "Donald Trump is many things, but one thing I’ll tell you is, he’s a one-man ratings wrecking ball machine," calling Trump a "media genius" for his efforts.

"I tell you, Jeff got hip to it really early, but he never told us what to say," Lemon said. "The only thing that he would tell us is, when we were doing interviews, when he allowed us to do interviews, is just, ‘Let him talk and fact check.’ You can ask him anything. It’s all in the way you ask the question."

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He explained, "You can say 'Trevor, what is wrong with your hair?' Or you can go, 'Trevor, you seem to have a really nice head of hair. What's going on? Did you change something?' Very similar question. Or you compliment him before. ‘You’re a marketing genius. Now, this one thing I don’t understand because it didn’t quite go over well with your supporters. What happened?’ And then you’re in."

Fox News Digital reached out to CNN for comment.

A study from February found that CNN lost more than 40% of its total day and primetime audience from 2017 to 2025, the respective first years of the two Trump presidencies. During 2016 presidential election coverage, CNN averaged 1.3 million primetime viewers and a total day audience of 752,000 thanks to what was termed a "Trump bump."

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However, by 2025, CNN’s primetime viewership plummeted to 573,000 and its total day audience was only 432,000. From 2017 through 2025, CNN saw 45% of its primetime audience flee and lost 44% of total day viewers.