Don Lemon is suggesting there’s a non-zero chance he’ll run for president.

The out former CNN anchor has made a number of media appearances in recent weeks in the wake of his arrest for covering an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protest at a St. Paul, Minnesota, church in January. While discussing the Trump administration’s attacks on freedom of the press on The View and Crooked Media’s Pod Save America, Lemon has also floated the possibility that he may make a play for the White House.

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On Thursday, he stopped by comedian Sherri Shepherd’s syndicated talk show, where the host noted that she’s “heard” that Lemon’s fans — whom he calls “Lemon heads” — want him to run for president.

“You’re such a person that I could absolutely see running for president,” Shepherd said.

“Why not? I’m not saying that I’m going to do it, but why not?” Lemon responded. “My parents taught me growing up that I could be anything that I wanted. And so, if Donald Trump can be president, why can’t I be president? So, I might do it. Who knows?”

Lemon went on to explain that while he thinks leading the most powerful country in the world is “a tough job,” he also believes there is “a simplicity to it.”

“You just hire great people around you, experts. You don’t think that you’re the smartest person in the room. You let the smart people advise you,” he said.

Similarly, when asked whether he would ever run for office on Pod Save America earlier this month, Lemon told Crooked Media’s Alex Wagner that he gets that question “all the time.”

But, he said, “I don’t want to ruin my life.”

“Why would I invite that sort of even more criticism? Why would I want to ruin my life with people digging into, you know, everything about me and campaign ads putting [out] everything that I’ve ever said that seemed controversial,” he said. “But I don’t even think people would care about that.”

Lemon has a well-documented history of on-air gaffes and comments that have been described as sexist and racially insensitive from his time as a CNN host. Shortly after Variety published an April 2023 report on his alleged behind-the-scenes misogyny and “diva-like behavior,” the network fired him, three years before his contract was set to expire.

But Lemon contrasted his own reported comments with those of the current president.

“I’ve never said that I was gonna grab anybody by the p***y, right? I’ve never said that a woman had blood coming out of her wherever,” he told Wagner on Pod Save America. “But also, I’m not a white man, and the rules are different for me.”

He also noted that his “mentors would say, ‘Why do you want to take a pay cut?’” to run for office.

“But it’s not about money for me,” he continued. “So, do I ever think about [running for office]? Yes. Could it happen? Yeah, it could happen — if the right opportunity presented itself.”

“If I wanted to — 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. I could definitely run this country better.”

Lemon added that as an independent, he would likely have a hard time running. “The way the system is set up, I’d have to choose a side. And so, you know, I probably would have to become a Democrat. Am I at the point that point now? No.”

But, he added, “Why can’t I think about running for office? Why can’t I think about being president of the United States?”

He went on to compare himself to former President Barack Obama, who served in the Illinois state Senate for eight years and in the U.S. Senate for four years before becoming the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008.

“Did anybody think Barack Obama — as he says, ‘This guy with a funny name, from a mixed background’ — did anybody ever thing that he would become president?” Lemon said. “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.”

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