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?DON LEMON CLAIMS AN UNQUALIFIED WHITE MAN 'FAILED UP' FROM COLBERT'S SHOW TO CNN AND THEN FIRED HIMEx-CNN host Don Lemon.
(Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)"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."FOX NEWS CHANNEL DOMINATES ABC IN WEEKDAY PRIMETIME, DELIVERING HIGHEST-RATED MAY FOR A MIDTERM ELECTION YEARPresident Donald Trump played CNN "like puppets" during his first campaign, comedian Trevor Noah said this week.(Win McNamee/Getty Images)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...