A top adviser to President Donald Trump said this week that unnamed White House officials called Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to complain following the network’s ouster of longtime personality Maria Bartiromo.
It’s the latest twist in a long and complicated relationship between the Trump-era White House and Fox News, and comes after reports suggested Bartiromo’s ouster was a result of her decision to share newsroom communications about coverage with the White House.
Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, made the claim during an appearance Tuesday on Newsmax’s “Greg Kelly Reports.” He also claimed the incident was evidence that Fox News was suppressing pro-Trump coverage and had abandoned its role as a conservative agenda-setter.
“Suffice it to say that Suzanne Scott got a call, and basically the White House let her know that that kind of thing is totally unacceptable,” Navarro said.
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He later added: “The bigger story here is, forget about anybody thinking that Fox is a conservative network that’s friendly to MAGA, that’s friendly to Trump.”
Navarro’s comments came days after Fox announced that Bartiromo was no longer with the company after more than 12 years there. The network called her departure a “business decision” but did not provide a specific reason.
In an op-ed published Tuesday, Navarro said Bartiromo had planned to interview him about Trump’s July 16 speech, in which the president discussed debunked allegations of Chinese interference in the 2020 election. Navarro said Bartiromo later sent him internal guidance telling Fox Business staff not to promote the speech or discuss the 2020 election, which he passed along to other White House officials. Bartiromo’s disclosure of internal coverage decisions ultimately led to her firing, the media newsletter Status reported.
Bartiromo’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, has disputed that she was fired, saying reports that she was no longer a Fox employee were “absolutely and unequivocally false.”
Navarro nevertheless blamed Scott for what he described as a broader effort to keep Trump-focused coverage within limits.
“Suzanne Scott is the enforcer,” Navarro said on Newsmax, arguing that Fox will give its audience conservative programming while avoiding some of the issues most important to Trump and his supporters.
Fox has faced costly legal battles over its coverage of the 2020 election, and Bartiromo was among the Fox personalities named in several lawsuits alleging the network promoted false claims about voting-machine companies. Fox settled Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit for $787.5 million in 2023, while a separate Smartmatic case remains pending.
Trump has defended Bartiromo since her departure, calling her a “total professional” and “true warrior.”
Navarro has gone further, portraying Bartiromo’s exit as evidence that Fox is pulling back from some of the issues that have defined Trump’s relationship with the network.
“The muzzling of Maria Bartiromo by Fox News Media Chief Executive Suzanne Scott should be a wake-up call to every Fox viewer who believes the network is pro-Trump and pro-MAGA,” he wrote.
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