White House trade adviser Peter Navarro unloaded on Fox News, accusing the network of suppressing MAGA viewpoints and retaliating against longtime host Maria Bartiromo after she shared internal guidance with him limiting coverage of President Donald Trump’s election-security address. Navarro said the episode revealed how Fox gives conservative viewers selected content while placing “guardrails” around issues central to Trump’s movement. He called the network’s treatment of Bartiromo part of a much broader censorship problem.
Navarro made the accusations following Fox’s announcement of Bartiromo’s abrupt departure from Fox News Media after more than 12 years with the company. Bartiromo hosted “Mornings with Maria” and “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” on Fox Business, along with “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News. Fox announced on September 3rd that she was no longer with the company but didn’t publicly explain the decision.
The dispute concerns Trump’s July 16th primetime address addressing election vulnerabilities and Communist China’s alleged ability to interfere in American elections. Fox carried the president’s speech live, but Navarro said Bartiromo’s planned follow-up coverage was blocked by network management. Bartiromo had reportedly booked Navarro to appear on her Fox Business program the next morning.
As CNN reported, Navarro said Bartiromo later forwarded him internal guidance sent by Fox Business programming chief Ralph Giordano. The message instructed her team to avoid promoting Trump’s address or airing segments about the 2020 election. Navarro said he passed the message to the White House because he believed administration officials needed to know how the president’s speech was being handled.
Navarro published the guidance in a September 10th thread on his social media page. According to the message he attributed to Giordano, Fox told Bartiromo’s producers, “We don’t want to promote it or push to the speech at all.” The directive continued, saying, “We don’t want to do 2020 election segments at all Thurs or Friday.”
“POTUS censorship from the belly of the Fox anti-Trump beast,” Navarro wrote. He accused network executives of deciding that they didn’t want to promote the speech or discuss the 2020 election afterward. “The Maria Bartiromo story, and what happened after President Trump’s July 16 address, shows you exactly how the Fox censorship machine works,” he said.
Navarro said Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott received an angry call from the someone at the White House after he shared the internal message. He claimed that Bartiromo was punished for allowing the White House to find out about the internal directive. “Did she apologize? No,” Navarro wrote of Scott. “She retaliated.”
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CNN reported that Bartiromo was removed from the air after Fox management learned that she had shared the guidance with the White House. Navarro said Bartiromo received Fox’s “infamous Golden Muzzle,” comparing her treatment to that of Tucker Carlson and Lou Dobbs. Fox didn’t respond to CNN’s request for comment about Navarro’s accusations.
Navarro argued that the dispute extends far beyond just one host. He accused Fox of serving viewers “conservative red meat” while restricting discussion of election integrity, Big Pharma, Trump’s tariffs, and China. “Too many conservatives assume Fox News speaks for Trump and MAGA,” Navarro wrote. “It does not.”
President Trump also expressed shock over Bartiromo’s departure, calling her “a total professional, and a true warrior” whose fans “will not be happy.” Navarro placed the responsibility directly on Scott and demanded that she answer for the network’s handling of Bartiromo and Trump’s address. “Scott should apologize to @POTUS and Maria. AND Fox viewers,” he wrote. “Then… RESIGN.”
Featured image credit: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons