President Donald Trump's revenge effort against independent journalist and former CNN host Don Lemon didn't go off the way he had hoped — and ultimately backfired — as "MAGA created a martyr," an analyst wrote Monday.
Salon's Sophia Tesfaye described how Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi has an "abysmal" record of going after Trump enemies and how, despite Trump's attempts to publicly humiliate Lemon, he gave the longtime journalist "a victory lap."
Don Lemon was arrested on federal charges related to his coverage of an anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota on January 18. Prosecutors alleged he interfered with law enforcement operations. He was freed from custody on Friday.
Trump tried to deflect and "claimed ignorance" Saturday when he was asked about Lemon on Air Force One.
"'I didn’t know anything about it,' he said, before calling Lemon a 'sleazebag,' a 'failure' and a host who 'got no viewers.' Then, with the instinct of a man who has spent his life chasing headlines, Trump added that 'probably from his standpoint,' the arrest was 'the best thing that could happen to him.' Even the president understood he’d been played," Tesfaye wrote.
And while Lemon sat behind bars in federal custody, his team orchestrated a live feed for nine hours, prompting "717,000 views and thousands of new paying subscribers."
And Trump's push to punish Lemon has exposed deep concerns among MAGA.
"The administration’s fixation on Lemon — MAGA influencers had petitioned for days via X for his arrest — reveals how badly it needs a political win," Tesfaye explained. "This has been a disastrous start to the new year for Trump, one marked by policy failures, political losses and the release of millions of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that the administration would much rather people not be discussing. The Don Lemon spectacle was supposed to suck up oxygen. It didn’t. The algorithm moved on."
The ordeal has revealed more about Trump's mindset ahead of the midterm elections.
"The desperation behind these prosecutions reflects the political reality that Trump and his enablers can no longer hide. Even within MAGA world, the spell is breaking — and that disillusionment is showing up at the ballot box," Tesfaye added.
Although the Trump administration has tried to silence journalists, those moves haven't quite worked, including its seizing of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson's electronic devices after federal agents raided her home in January, a judge later ordered were to be returned.
"But, so far, it seems to be spectacularly backfiring on Trump. MAGA created a martyr, energized the opposition and exposed the hollowness of their 'law and order' rhetoric," Tesfaye wrote.
