Former CNN host Don Lemon said his old network has only itself to blame for President Donald Trump’s decision to bar it from the White House on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, and he said he had warned its executives that the day would come.
“I hate to tell them, but, we told you so!” Lemon said on his podcast, the Monday, Sept. 21, episode of “The Don Lemon Show,” his independent program. Jim Acosta, another former CNN host, replied, “We did. We told them.”
“I want to feel bad for them, but it’s kind of their own making,” Lemon said in the same episode.
Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House and announced the ban on Truth Social, writing that he was “banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW … and Politico … from the White House” over what he called their “FAKE NEWS.” He cited no specific story. The day after the announcement, reporters from the three outlets were turned away and their White House hard passes revoked.
A Boycott and Trump TV
A press boycott followed on Monday, Sept. 21. There was no television press pool coverage of Trump that day after Fox News said it would halt all coverage of the president in solidarity with CNN. Other outlets including HuffPost refused to run photos of Trump taken that day, and there was no audio of his speech that day at a South Lawn ribbon-cutting ceremony.
On the evening of Monday, Sept. 21, the Trump administration launched “Trump TV,” a 24/7 video stream dedicated to the president. Critics compared it to state-run television in North Korea, Russia and China.
The three outlets sued on Sept. 21, arguing the ban violated the First and Fifth Amendments. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, temporarily restored their access on Sept. 24. Kelly had also ordered Acosta’s own White House press pass restored in 2018.
Two days after Kelly’s ruling, CNN was kept out of the press pool aboard Air Force One by the White House for Trump’s trip to Knoxville, Tennessee.
On Sept. 24, during Xi Jinping’s state visit, Trump accused CNN and MS NOW on Truth Social of having “refused today to cover one of the most important and beautiful events that have taken place in many years,” and he called the reception “made for television.” CNN said it had submitted a reporter, producer and camera crew but was told about an hour before Xi’s arrival that it could send only a photojournalist and audio technician.
What the Ex-Anchors Said
Lemon said CNN management had wanted to move the network to the right and make it “more like Fox.” He recalled pressing executives with questions such as “What is our election denier policy? What is our insurrection denier policy?” He said he objected to airtime for Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, “who comes on and he just lies about it.”
“You’re next! If you allow this to happen, you are next,” Lemon said, describing his warning to CNN.
Acosta pointed to CNN’s decision to put conservative commentator Scott Jennings on the payroll, calling him “basically a paid Trump spokesman,” and argued the courtship bought the network nothing. “Appeasement does not work. It does not work,” he said.
In the same Sept. 21 podcast exchange, Acosta noted that Trump’s approval rating had sunk to 29 percent in one new poll. “So people are going to see through this,” he said.
Lemon said on his podcast, according to a transcription of the episode, “For Donald Trump, there is no loyalty. Just because you do something for him… that doesn’t mean he’s going to be nice to you.”
Lemon also said of the network, “It’s their own fault,” and, “They sort of ushered this in by bending the knee and putting on MAGA folks.”
In a later episode of “The Don Lemon Show,” Lemon rejected labels applied to him after playing street-interview footage. “I’m not against Donald Trump. I’m not against a person in general. I’m against lies. I don’t like his policies. I don’t like the way he treats people,” he said. He also said, “I’m an independent.”
Lemon’s Exit From CNN
CNN hired Lemon in 2006 and gave him a primetime slot in 2014; late in 2022 he moved to mornings as a co-anchor of “CNN This Morning.” On Monday, April 24, 2023, he wrote that his agent had told him that morning he was out, and he described himself as stunned. “After 17 years at CNN, I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” he wrote.
Chris Licht was running CNN at the time, and the network disputed his account the same day, saying he had been offered a meeting with management and had put out a statement instead.
In February 2023, critics faulted Lemon for saying on air that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, then 51, was not “in her prime,” and he apologized. In early April 2023, workplace misconduct accusations against Lemon became public; his representatives denied them.
Two Firings, One News Cycle
Fox News announced the ouster of anchor Tucker Carlson the same day as Lemon’s exit. Desi Lydic, guest hosting “The Daily Show,” marveled that its most popular anchor had been cut loose by Fox.
A history lesson took up roughly 20 minutes of Rachel Maddow’s Monday program, with the MSNBC host tracing a line from 1930s radio priest Father Charles Coughlin through Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly. “Whoever is dominant for their time gets smaller and smaller and smaller over time,” Maddow said.
That night “Maddow” drew 2,734,000 total viewers, according to Nielsen, edging Fox News’ “Hannity” at 2,531,000. CNN was regularly finishing third among the cable news networks in 2023.
Warner Bros. Discovery owns CNN, and Paramount Skydance has agreed to buy the property as part of its pending acquisition of the company. Lemon now hosts his own show. Federal charges stemming from his coverage of a January 2026 anti-ICE protest at a St. Paul, Minnesota, church remain against him, and Acosta’s former colleague has pleaded not guilty and is fighting them.
Acosta built his profile at CNN sparring with Trump and left in January 2025 rather than accept a move to a midnight time slot. Both men are treating the White House ban as proof of the warnings they say they gave.
