Maria Bartiromo, one of Fox News’s most recognizable anchors and a fierce backer of President Trump, is leaving the network, the company said on Thursday.
In a statement, the network said: “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with Fox News Media.” It did not specify a reason for the abrupt departure.
“We thank Maria for her work over the last 12½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,” the statement said.
The dismissal came after Ms. Bartiromo shared internal Fox Business communications with the White House, a person familiar with the details confirmed.
When Mr. Trump gave a prime-time speech about election integrity in July, the network warned its journalists away from covering the president’s claims on the air. Ms. Bartiromo shared a text from a Fox Business executive repeating that guidance with the White House. The episode was first reported by Status, a media newsletter.
Ms. Bartiromo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After Mr. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Ms. Bartiromo helped to promote his false claims that his defeat was the result of fraud and election irregularities. Her conduct was a focal point of two major defamation lawsuits against Fox News, from the voting machine companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. Fox settled its suit with Dominion for $787.5 million in 2023; the Smartmatic case continues.
On her shows after the election, Ms. Bartiromo teed up the topic of election fraud for pro-Trump guests, including Sidney Powell, a crucial figure in the attempt to overturn the results. “Sidney, we talked about the Dominion software,” Ms. Bartiromo said in November 2020. “I know that there were voting irregularities. Tell me about that.”
Repeated investigations and audits have debunked claims of widespread fraud or manipulation in 2020 or other elections.
In July, Fox News was sued for defamation related to claims made on Ms. Bartiromo’s weekday morning show. A pair of Utah nonprofits and their founders said that Kevin O’Leary, the investor of “Shark Tank” fame, had spread defamatory accusations about them on the program after they opposed his plans for a 40,000-acre data center. Ms. Bartiromo boosted his comments, according to the complaint. (Mr. O’Leary later retracted them, and Fox News apologized.)
The network said on Thursday that it would rename her daily program on Fox Business Network, “Mornings With Maria,” to “Mornings With Fox Business” and use a rotating cast of hosts. A replacement for Ms. Bartiromo for her Sunday morning program, “Sunday Morning Futures,” will be named at a later date, the statement said.
Ms. Bartiromo, the first television journalist to report live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, joined Fox News in 2014 from a high-profile run at CNBC.
Her hiring was a programming coup for Roger Ailes, the Fox News chief at the time, and came as Fox Business was still working to establish itself in the world of round-the-clock financial news. Ms. Bartiromo was a leading practitioner when it came to chatter about bubbles, valuations and market jitters, though some raised questions about her socializing with her sources.
The New York tabloids called her the “Money Honey.”
Mr. Trump congratulated her on Twitter about the move to Fox in 2013, writing, “She is a total winner!”
He has continued to praise her since, referring to her as a “great reporter.” In July, he called her “FANTASTIC” on his social media platform, Truth Social.
She has also pivoted toward Mr. Trump and his politics during her time at Fox. Critics have repeatedly faulted her interviews with him as being too friendly. She has dined at the White House several times, including at the president’s table during a dinner for his inauguration.
In July, Ms. Bartiromo’s show “Sunday Morning Futures” averaged 1.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Her three-hour Fox Business program, which begins at 6 a.m., averaged 98,000 viewers in July. Financial networks like Fox Business and CNBC generally have smaller but wealthier audiences than traditional cable news networks.
Her last day on the air was Aug. 9, and she did not deliver a farewell to her viewers.
At the end of her final appearance on the network, Ms. Bartiromo said: “Thank you so much for joining us. I’m Maria Bartiromo, and I will see you next week on ‘Mornings with Maria’ on Fox Business.”
John Koblin and Jim Rutenberg contributed reporting.
