Donald Trump supporters are reportedly threatening to abandon Fox News following the network's decision to part ways with anchor Maria Bartiromo last week. The departure has fueled online speculation among MAGA supporters, with some alleging censorship and pointing to the influence of Fox Corporation board member Paul Ryan.
MAGA influencer Gunther Eagleman, who has nearly 2 million followers on X, formerly Twitter, suggested that Ryan, a vocal critic of Trump, was responsible for Bartiromo's exit. Eagleman shared a post on X that included a screenshot from Trump's Truth Social account. The post reiterated claims that Bartiromo may have been pushed out due to censorship, citing a text message from a Fox executive to Bartiromo in July that reportedly directed her and others to avoid Trump's election-related speech that month. This directive, allegedly sent by Bartiromo to Peter Navarro, a senior Trump advisor, may have influenced Fox's decision, according to a report from Puck.
"The boardroom donor-class Republicans have spent years sanding the edge off Fox, and viewers keep paying the price," Eagleman stated on X. "If the network keeps sidelining voices who tell the truth about Trump, it should not act shocked when the audience walks."
This sentiment was echoed by other conservative accounts and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, who reshared Eagleman's post. Users on X, such as @PatriotWoman22, also highlighted Ryan's role on Fox's board, drawing parallels to the departure of Tucker Carlson. "Just like they shut up Tucker [Carlson] before the [2024] presidential election when they held him to his contract but would not let him on TV, they're doing the same to Maria Bartiromo," the user posted. "If you haven't canceled Fox news yet, you should."
Pamela Hensley, another influencer, expressed a similar view, writing, "Fox didn’t fire Maria Bartiromo. They pulled her off the air and will keep paying her through 2029, silencing her until after the 2028 election. Paul Ryan strikes again."
Fox News Media officially stated that Bartiromo "is no longer with Fox News" on Thursday. However, Bartiromo's attorney, Bryan Freedman, called reports of her firing "irresponsible" and "absolutely and unequivocally false" in a statement to the Daily Mail. He added, "Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise. Those reporting her firing or the incredulous facts supporting that fiction have exhibited a complete and utter reckless disregard for the truth."
Bartiromo had been absent from Fox's airwaves for several weeks prior to her reported departure, with her last appearance on "Sunday Morning Futures" being August 9. She was the last remaining defendant at Fox News Media in a lawsuit filed by electronic voting system Smartmatic, which alleged that hosts promoted false claims about the 2020 election. A similar lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems resulted in a substantial settlement for the company in 2023.
Paul Ryan joined the board of directors of Fox Corporation in March 2019, after retiring from Congress. He has since become a prominent critic of Trump, stating in 2023 that Trump is "a populist, authoritarian narcissist" and not a conservative. Ryan had previously indicated in a New York Times Magazine interview that while in Congress, he felt he needed to "make it work" with Trump, but that the former president "really went off the rails" after he left office.
A source familiar with Bartiromo's exit told the Daily Mail that the decision was made by Fox. Court documents from the Dominion lawsuit revealed that Bartiromo had earned $70 million since joining Fox in 2014.