Don Lemon was arrested by federal agents on Thursday night and his beef with Donald Trump just hit a whole new level. The former CNN host was covering the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles when feds rolled up and took him into custody.
This all stems from that anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on January 19, where Lemon filmed demonstrators disrupting a church service.
The Minnesota church protest happened because demonstrators claimed one of the pastors was an ICE official. Lemon went inside with the protesters and filmed what went down during the service disruption.
“Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it,” Don Lemon said in his own defense.
But Trump’s administration sees it differently. They’re treating this like Lemon crossed a line from journalism into activism. Trump wasted zero time going after Lemon during a press briefing.
“Don Lemon is a loser, lightweight,” the president said. “I saw him walk into that church like he owned the place.”
This arrest represents the wildest escalation yet in a feud that’s been brewing for years. Trump has been calling Lemon names since way back, hitting him with “dumbest man on television” and other insults whenever he got the chance.
Lemon’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, fired back hard in a statement posted to Instagram.
“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said.
DON LEMON HAS BEEN ARRESTED
The find out stage of FAFO pic.twitter.com/Hs5NuDrBGt
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 30, 2026
The attorney called this whole situation “an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and a transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration.”
Don Lemon’s lawyer pointed out the twisted priorities here.
“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest,” Lowell said.
Here’s where it gets really wild. A federal magistrate judge already rejected charges against Lemon once. The Trump Justice Department tried to charge eight people connected to the church protest, but the judge only approved charges for three others, leaving Lemon out.
Trump’s DOJ then appealed the decision and was again rebuffed by an appeals court. But they kept pushing until they finally got their arrest.
Attorney General Pam Bondi called the church incident a “coordinated attack” and personally directed the arrests of Lemon and three other protesters. She’s been talking tough about this case, promising to “pursue this to the ends of the Earth.”
The backstory between Trump and Lemon goes deep.
When Lemon was still at CNN, Donald Trump would regularly blast him on social media and during press conferences. The attacks got personal, with Trump questioning Lemon’s intelligence and calling him irrelevant.
Lemon got fired from CNN in April 2023 after making controversial comments about Nikki Haley. He walked away with a massive $24.5 million settlement.
Since leaving CNN, Lemon has been working as an independent journalist. He’s stayed critical of Trump, which clearly still gets under the president’s skin. Jim Acosta, Lemon’s former CNN colleague, jumped on social media after the arrest.
“This is outrageous and cannot stand. The First Amendment is under attack in America!” he wrote.
Trump’s pattern of going after media critics is well-documented. The administration already raided Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home earlier this month, seizing her devices.
Don Lemon is expected to make his first court appearance on Friday (January 30).
Harmeet Dhillon from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division made it clear they’re not backing down. “We’re going to pursue this to the ends of the Earth,” she said during a podcast interview Friday.
