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| Maria Bartiromo |
Fox News Media parted ways with longtime anchor Maria Bartiromo on Thursday after she shared internal network guidance with the White House telling staff to avoid amplifying President Donald Trump’s latest 2020 election claims, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
The company announced that Bartiromo was “no longer with Fox News Media,” effective immediately, and thanked her for 12½ years of work. It gave no public explanation beyond later describing the move as a “business decision.” On Thursday Fox News Media issued a statement: 'Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media. We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 ½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter.”
Patrick Ignozzi, executive producer of her weekday Fox Business program “Mornings with Maria,” was also dismissed. Fox is renaming her shows: the morning program becomes “Mornings with Fox Business,” her Friday program becomes “FBN’s Wall Street,” and “Sunday Morning Futures” will use rotating hosts, starting with Jason Chaffetz.
Bartiromo did not immediately comment. Trump posted on Truth Social that he “can’t believe” she is gone, calling her “a total professional, and a true warrior.”
Bartiromo was one of Fox’s most prominent Trump-aligned hosts and a central figure in the network’s post-2020 legal exposure. After Trump lost that election, she repeatedly aired claims of widespread fraud that courts, audits, and Fox’s own later legal record treated as false. Those broadcasts featured heavily in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case, which Fox settled for $787.5 million, and in Smartmatic’s still-pending suit. Internal messages later showed she had urged Trump allies to “overturn this.” The July guidance reflected Fox’s continuing sensitivity to that legal history.
Fox has not said what the 58-year-old Bartiromo will do next. Some industry speculation has focused on a possible administration role; nothing has been announced. Vice President JD Vance said he did not expect her to become White House press secretary.
Her on-air remarks have drawn previous controversy. In June she issued an on-air apology after investor Kevin O’Leary claimed on her show that opponents of his planned Utah data center were backed by Chinese interests — an assertion he later said he had no evidence to support.
The company announced that Bartiromo was “no longer with Fox News Media,” effective immediately, and thanked her for 12½ years of work. It gave no public explanation beyond later describing the move as a “business decision.” On Thursday Fox News Media issued a statement: 'Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media. We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 ½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter.”
The trigger, according to reporting first published by Status and corroborated by the New York Times, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal, was a July incident. After Trump’s prime-time speech on election integrity — in which he revived allegations involving China and the 2020 vote — Fox issued written guidance instructing senior staff not to give those claims airtime. Bartiromo, who wanted to pursue related coverage, shared a text or screenshot of that instruction with senior White House officials. Fox executives learned of the disclosure after the White House contacted the network. Leadership viewed it as a violation of her employment agreement and decided in August to remove her.
Patrick Ignozzi, executive producer of her weekday Fox Business program “Mornings with Maria,” was also dismissed. Fox is renaming her shows: the morning program becomes “Mornings with Fox Business,” her Friday program becomes “FBN’s Wall Street,” and “Sunday Morning Futures” will use rotating hosts, starting with Jason Chaffetz.
Bartiromo was one of Fox’s most prominent Trump-aligned hosts and a central figure in the network’s post-2020 legal exposure. After Trump lost that election, she repeatedly aired claims of widespread fraud that courts, audits, and Fox’s own later legal record treated as false. Those broadcasts featured heavily in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case, which Fox settled for $787.5 million, and in Smartmatic’s still-pending suit. Internal messages later showed she had urged Trump allies to “overturn this.” The July guidance reflected Fox’s continuing sensitivity to that legal history.
Fox has not said what the 58-year-old Bartiromo will do next. Some industry speculation has focused on a possible administration role; nothing has been announced. Vice President JD Vance said he did not expect her to become White House press secretary.
She had not appeared on Fox News or Fox Business for nearly a month; her last on-air appearance was “Sunday Morning Futures” on Aug. 9. The final episode of “Mornings with Maria” aired Thursday morning. Thursday's abrupt announcement was unexpected.
Fox said the weekday program will become “Mornings with FOX Business,” with rotating anchors starting Friday. “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” will be rebranded as “FBN’s Wall Street,” hosted this week by Cheryl Casone and then by rotating anchors. Jason Chaffetz will host “Sunday Morning Futures” this weekend, with a permanent replacement to be named later.
Fox Business also said it will announce a new weekday schedule in the coming weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Bartiromo was one of Fox’s highest-profile personalities and, in recent years, a prominent advocate for President Trump and his administration. She joined Fox in 2014 and at times hosted as many as 16½ hours of programming a week, mostly on Fox Business.
Comments by Bartiromo and others on her program were cited in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox over false claims that the company helped rig the 2020 presidential election. Fox settled with Dominion in 2023 for $787.5 million. Bartiromo remains a defendant in Smartmatic’s ongoing defamation suit over similar 2020 election claims. Fox has said Smartmatic has been mired in scandals and cannot prove that any Fox reports caused it to lose business or suffer other financial harm.
Bartiromo began her career at CNBC, where she became known as “Money Honey” and a fixture of New York Stock Exchange floor coverage. Then-Fox CEO Roger Ailes, who had run CNBC during her rise there, brought her to Fox News.Year to date, “Mornings with Maria” averaged 114,000 viewers on Fox Business, “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” averaged 97,000, and “Sunday Morning Futures” averaged 1.8 million on Fox News, according to Nielsen.
Fox News remains the most-watched cable-news network, averaging nearly 2.5 million prime-time viewers in the second quarter, compared with about 1.1 million for MS NOW and 711,000 for CNN. Fox Business averaged 242,000 total business-day viewers in the same period, versus 234,000 for CNBC.