President Trump lit up former CNN anchor Don Lemon Thursday — torching Lemon’s claim that he was “just doing journalism” when he followed a mob of anti-ICE protesters into a St. Paul church during a worship service last month.
Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton, Trump praised the Justice Department for pressing charges against Lemon and eight others accused of barging into the sanctuary while congregants were in the middle of worship.
“I watched that tape, and you know, that was violent,” Trump told the crowd. “The minister was great. He was so calm and good — they’re screaming at him, terrible, right in the middle of a church service, it’s got to be illegal.”
Then Trump turned the screws.
“They’re bad people. You have one Trump hater in particular,” the president continued, without naming Lemon. “It was terrible. They tried to use freedom of the press and all this to get out of a criminal event, but that was a horrible thing to witness.”
Watch the clip above.
Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles on Jan. 30 while he was covering the Grammy Awards. Fellow independent journalist Georgia Fort was also arrested over her actions during the Jan. 18 storming of the church.
Both have since been released while the case is pending.
Protesters had barged into Cities Church after reports surfaced that a pastor worked as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.
Lemon streamed the ordeal on his YouTube show — and prosecutors say the nine defendants “oppressed, threatened, and intimidated the Church’s congregants and pastors” by staying in the main aisle and exhibiting “menacing and threatening behavior.”
Trump tears into Don Lemon for free speech defense, calls Minnesota church storming ‘horrible thing to witness’ https://t.co/lhD5SwKghx pic.twitter.com/1LP4mqqfOO
— New York Post (@nypost) February 5, 2026
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