Politics

Trump-Loving Fox Star Abruptly Exits After Mystery Absence

OUT THE DOOR

The anchor was with the conservative network for more than a decade.

Bartiromo
Jeenah Moon/Reuters

A Trumpy Fox News star is abruptly departing the network after weeks of silence.

Maria Bartiromo, 58, is no longer with Fox News as of Thursday, the network announced in a terse statement.

“We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 and a half years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,” it said.

Fox
Fox News star Maria Bartiromo abruptly parted ways with the network. Screenshot/Fox News/Fox News

Fox Business Network has already taken down its page for Bartiromo.

The final episode of Mornings with Maria, which runs 6 to 9 a.m. ET, aired Thursday morning on Fox Business Network. The show will transition to Mornings with Fox Business starting Friday with a rotating cast of anchors.

The star’s other show, Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street, which airs 7 to 7:30 p.m. ET on Fridays, will also become FBN’s Wall Street hosted by Cheryl Casone and rotating anchors this week.

Sunday Morning Futures, which airs 10 to 11 a.m. ET, will be taken over by Jason Chaffetz this weekend, with a new host to be announced at a later date.

Bartiromo’s last Mornings with Maria appearance was on Aug. 9, when she spoke to Chevron CEO Mike Wirth about the volatile energy prices amid the Iran war. Her last Instagram post was on July 30.

Variety’s Aidan McLaughlin reported that Bartiromo did not leave for a job in the Trump administration.

Bartiromo’s first live broadcast was on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1993, when she was a reporter for CNBC.

The star business journalist spent two decades at CNBC before joining Fox News, where she slowly began to make a Trump-ward turn that left her colleagues scratching their heads.

NEW YORK CITY - MAY 13:  Journalist Maria Bartiromo attends the grand opening of the NBC Company Store on May 13, 1999 in New York City. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Bartiromo was with CNBC for two decades before joining Fox. Ron Galella Collection via Getty

After Bartiromo joined Trump’s crusade crying fraud in the 2020 election, her former CNBC co-anchor Ted David said her transformation triggered “a lot of eye-rolling.”

“Maria was always considered to be a principled professional,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2020. “She’s losing a lot of respect from her fellow journalists.”

Over the years, Bartiromo shared dinners with Trump and even became a board member for the newly MAGAfied Kennedy Center.

Bartiromo had rare moments of disagreement with Trump during her time at Fox. In January, she needled the president on his free-market promises. In May, she blamed a stock market dip on Trump’s Truth Social post. In 2023, she told him flat-out, “You didn’t drain the swamp.”

But Bartiromo’s evolution ultimately impressed her audience of one.

“Maria Bartiromo is FANTASTIC!!! President DJT,” Trump posted on Truth Social in July.

Donald Trump on Truth Social
President Donald Trump has repeatedly praised Bartiromo. Donald Trump on Truth Social

In August, days before Bartiromo’s final appearance on her show, Trump praised her interview with Wirth.

“Mike Wirth, Chairman and CEO of Chevron, just gave, in an interview with the fabulous Maria Bartiromo, all of the reasons that his company is doing so well,” he wrote. “The only thing he conveniently forgot to mention is that, without the genius, foresight, strength, and stability of the TRUMP Administration, the Oil Industry, and our Country itself, would be DEAD!”

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