President Donald Trump’s base is revolting against Fox News after the network handed MAGA darling Maria Bartiromo’s old Sunday show to a new host.
Fox abruptly ousted Bartiromo, 58, on Thursday after more than 12 years. Status reported that the MAGA host’s firing followed her tipping off the White House about Fox’s secret instructions not to promote Trump’s election conspiracies on the air, though her lawyer has disputed that she was fired.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned network has wasted no time repopulating Bartiromo’s old anchor chairs, including tapping Fox contributor Jason Chaffetz to temporarily take the reins of Sunday Morning Futures, a show Bartiromo debuted in 2014.
But while Fox has moved on from Bartiromo, its MAGA audience apparently has not, unleashing on the network and Chaffetz as he stepped into her old chair for the first time Sunday.
“Wrong. That chair belongs to Maria Bartiromo,” MAGA influencer Gunther Eagleman, whose real name is David Freeman, wrote on X alongside a clip of Chaffetz announcing, “Welcome to Sunday Morning Futures, I’m Jason Chaffetz.”
“America still knows who built that show and who owned Sunday mornings. Bring Maria back,” Eagleman demanded.
Many vowed to ditch Fox News altogether, with one viewer declaring, “I used to watch every Sunday morning. Not today, I went to Newsmax. No more FOX for me.”
Others bristled at Chaffetz’s past as a Republican congressman from Utah under the then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, who sits on Fox’s board of directors and is despised by the MAGA faithful for his criticism of Trump.
“And they selected that swamp rat. Probably Paul Ryan’s selection,” one X user wrote.
Another wrote, “Sunday mornings just aren’t the same without her. Maria belongs on Sunday Morning Futures...”
Fox did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Sunday show, which airs from 10 to 11 a.m. ET, has been a ratings powerhouse for Fox News during Bartiromo’s run, consistently topping the network’s weekend lineup.
But Bartiromo’s time in the anchor chair came to a sudden end Thursday, when Fox announced, “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media.”
Sources told Status that she was fired because she had informed the White House about a directive from the network not to give credence to baseless claims Trump made about the 2020 election in his July primetime speech, even sharing the text message from executives in which they stated their guidance to senior employees.
White House senior trade adviser Peter Navarro bragged to Puck on Friday that Bartiromo had sent him a screenshot of the edict.
But Bartiromo’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, has maintained that she remains an employee of the network.
“The irresponsible reports that have been published stating that Maria Bartiromo was fired or is no longer an employee of Fox are absolutely and unequivocally false,” he said in a statement, first reported by The Daily Mail. “Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses, and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise.”
