Fox confirms Maria Bartiromo exit

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Maria Bartiromo had been off-air for weeks before it was confirmed she had left Fox. BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS

Kaitlan Collins and Maria Bartiromo. thedailybeast.com

It is unclear if Donald Trump had directly asked Maria Bartiromo why Fox News was not covering his speech. Screengrab/Fox News Screengrab/Fox News

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts during a campaign rally for U.S. Senator Darline Graham (R-SC) at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, U.S., August 21, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci thedailybeast.com

Maria Bartiromo Goes to War With Fox Over TrumpLeaks Ouster thedailybeast.com

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Fox News has confirmed that Maria Bartiromo is no longer with the company, a sudden break that has triggered a public fight over whether she was fired and why. The Daily Beast reports that Fox said on a Thursday that “Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” while Bartiromo’s lawyer Bryan Freedman insisted reports portraying her as abruptly terminated were “absolutely and unequivocally false,” adding that he has “receipts and witnesses.”

The dispute is unfolding in public because the underlying allegation touches the one thing a partisan media operation cannot easily price in: internal discipline that collides with political access. In a separate Daily Beast report, Bartiromo is said to have been removed from Fox Business and her morning show rebranded, with Cheryl Casone taking over hosting duties. The same report says Bartiromo was allegedly ousted for sharing a confidential internal message with the White House — a memo instructing staff not to cover Donald Trump’s July primetime address.

That memo, as described by the Daily Beast, told employees to avoid covering a speech promoted as “really big news” on election security but focused on unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. If the account is accurate, the conflict was not about being too critical of Trump, but about refusing to amplify a claim the company had already learned can generate direct financial liability.

Fox has not publicly given a reason for Bartiromo’s departure, according to the Daily Beast, but the network has removed her online bio and renamed two shows previously built around her name. The rebrand itself functioned as a message: the programming slot continues, the personality does not. On-air, Casone did not mention Bartiromo in the first broadcasts after the change, the Daily Beast reports.

The backdrop is Fox’s costly experience with election-related claims. The Daily Beast notes that Bartiromo was involved in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case against Fox, which the network settled in 2023 for $787.5 million. The network can keep its audience by sounding sympathetic to Trump, but it cannot keep paying to litigate the same storyline.

Bartiromo worked at Fox for more than a decade. The network’s statement ended the relationship in one sentence, while her lawyer promised the details will surface “through the courthouse or otherwise.”