JD Vance Just Weighed in on Fox News Pulling Maria Bartiromo Off the Air 25 Days Before Telling Anyone
Fox News fired Tucker Carlson one week after paying 787 million dollars to settle an election lawsuit.
Now it has quietly done the same thing to another Trump ally it never wanted to replace.
Fox has not told nearly two million Sunday viewers why August 9 was her last day.
25 Days Off Air Before Fox Said a Word
Maria Bartiromo's final Fox News segment aired August 9.
No announcement.
No on-air farewell.
No explanation to the nearly two million conservatives who tuned in to Sunday Morning Futures every week expecting to see her face.
Fox waited until September 3 to release a statement.
"We thank Maria for her work over the last 12½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter."
That is the complete statement.
One sentence.
For twelve and a half years of building Fox's weekend lineup into the dominant force in weekend cable news, she got one sentence and no goodbye.
Sunday Morning Futures averaged 1.9 million viewers in the second quarter of 2026 – the highest-rated program on Fox's entire weekend schedule.
She was not a struggling host they needed to move on from.
She was the host who made Sunday morning appointment television for the conservatives who put Trump in the White House twice.
She sat at Trump's inaugural dinner.
Trump appointed her to the Kennedy Center board.
She championed the SAVE America Act on air.
Before Fox, she spent two decades at CNBC, where she made history as the first woman to report live from the New York Stock Exchange floor.
Fox's answer to all of that was three show reassignments and a one-sentence press release.
Jason Chaffetz takes the Sunday Morning Futures slot.
Mornings with Maria becomes Mornings with FOX Business with rotating anchors.
Maria Bartiromo's Wall Street becomes FBN's Wall Street, hosted by Cheryl Casone.
The Network Already Ran This Playbook Once
Tucker Carlson was Fox's highest-rated host in April 2023.
He was fired the week after Fox wrote a 787 million dollar check to settle Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit.
Carlson had given substantial airtime to 2020 election fraud allegations.
So had Bartiromo.
Her coverage of Sidney Powell's claims became central evidence in Dominion's case against the network.
And Smartmatic's separate defamation suit – still unresolved – names Bartiromo among its defendants.
The Dominion case is closed.
Smartmatic is not.
Three years after firing Carlson, the anchor who hosted the network's most-watched weekend show is gone with no press conference, no on-air sign-off, and no acknowledgment that 25 days passed between her last segment and the network's one-sentence statement.
Tucker went to X and built an audience larger than anything Fox ever gave him.
Bartiromo has said nothing publicly.
Fox has not changed its statement either.
Some in the White House press corps speculated, asking Vice President J.D. Vance if he knew what her future might look like.
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Fox Chose the Lawyers Over 1.9 Million Sunday Viewers
This was not about ratings.
Sunday Morning Futures was Fox's top weekend program right up to the day Fox erased her name from the lineup.
The conservative reaction was immediate.
Sid Rosenberg said what they were all thinking: "She loves Trump. He loves her. No other logical explanation for this QUICK exit after nearly 13 years."
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis pushed for Bartiromo to step into the seat just vacated by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: "Maybe it's time for a Brooklyn girl to be the next White House Press Secretary?"
Monica Crowley called her "a brilliant, honest, hardworking and fearless journalist."
Trump previously called her "a great reporter."
Vice President JD Vance was fielding questions about the departure before the day was out.
He dismissed the Press Secretary speculation in four words: "I don't think so."
Then he added three more: "I love Maria."
Fox did not return the sentiment.
None of it changed what Fox had already decided.
The 1.9 million conservatives who made Sunday Morning Futures the most-watched show on Fox's weekend schedule woke up September 4 to find Jason Chaffetz in her chair and zero explanation for what happened in the 25 days between August 9 and today.
Fox built that audience.
The lawsuit won.
The audience lost.
Sources:
- Fox News Media, "Fox News Media Parts Ways with Maria Bartiromo," Fox News Press, September 3, 2026.
- JD Vance, public statement on Bartiromo departure, September 3, 2026.
- Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, public statement on Bartiromo departure, September 3, 2026.
