I know, I know. It’s April 1. But trust me, this is no April Fool’s joke.
Former CNN host Don Lemon stated that if he were elected president, he would be able to govern more effectively than President Trump and many others, claiming he could resolve the country’s issues “in no time flat.” He also compared himself to former President Barack Obama and joked that people might find his ego-driven comment to be crazy.
“Look, 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,” Lemon said Sunday. “I could definitely run this country better than Donald Trump.”
“And I know people are going to say Don Lemon is crazy, but yeah.”
“Look, why can’t I think about running for office? Why can’t I think about being president of the United States when look at what we have? Did anybody think Barack Obama, as he says, this guy with a funny name is from a mixed background? Did anybody ever think that he would become president, that he had that aspiration?” the former CNN host 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. You know what else? I think that I could run better than most people.”
“I could come in and fix the bulk of their problems and lickety-split in no time flat,” he added. “Boom.”
Lemon’s remarks highlight a larger issue on the left: an inflated sense of self-importance. Complex, deeply entrenched problems are often approached as if they have simple, immediate solutions—provided the “right” people are in charge. If these solutions were truly so straightforward, someone would have put them into action by now, and we wouldn’t still be having these debates. The ongoing nature of these issues serves as a clear reminder that they require more than just the unyielding confidence of a gay journalist to resolve.