Peter Navarro rips Fox for firing Maria Bartiromo and claims network ‘has not treated Trump very well’

Peter Navarro, a senior counselor to the president, has attacked Fox News following the firing of Maria Bartiromo, claiming the media corporation “has not treated Donald Trump very well.”The Trump official made a guest appearance on Newsmax’s Greg Kelly Reports Tuesday to defend Bartiromo, hours after publishing an op-ed in The Washington Times criticizing Fox’s decision to let her go last week.The anchor – who hosted Mornings with Maria and Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street on Fox Business and Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News – was reportedly dismissed for sharing an internal memo from Fox Business senior VP of programming Ralph Giordano with Navarro. Giordano advised his staff not to repeat or promote unproven claims Trump had made about alleged Chinese meddling in the 2020 election in a primetime speech delivered from the Oval Office on July 16. According to Puck News, Bartiromo forwarded the guidance to Navarro by way of explanation after she was forced to cancel a planned interview with him to discuss the president’s claims.Navarro told Kelly he had not violated Bartiromo’s confidence by passing on the guidance, saying it had been his “duty” to do so.White House official Peter Navarro attacks Fox News for firing anchor Maria Bartiromo during an interview with Greg Kelly on Newsmax Tuesday (Greg Kelly Reports/Newsmax)He went on to allege that Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott “didn’t want to have anything to do” with Trump’s address, overlooking the fact that her network did broadcast the speech in full while mainstream rivals like ABC News, NBC News and CNN declined to run it live, prompting the president to demand their licenses be revoked.“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,” he continued. “Suzanne Scott is the enforcer. They’ll feed you some red meat over there – the easy stuff, the trans stuff, stuff like that – but when it comes down to MAGA things, Suzanne Scott gets rid of everybody over there who wants to talk about MAGA issues.“You fire people like Tucker Carlson and Lou Dobbs, now Maria Bartiromo. That throws fear into all these other anchors and keeps them in line. It’s like, ‘Don’t talk about kinda Trump stuff,’ right? And we know how that network has not treated Donald Trump very well.”The Independent has reached out to Fox for comment.Trump praised Bartiromo after her departure was abruptly announced last week, praising her as ‘a true warrior’ (AFP/Getty)Navarro’s earlier editorial, headlined “Fox News Muzzles Maria Bartiromo,” made similar arguments about the anchor’s dismissal, claiming the corporation’s executives were more interested in appeasing advertisers than addressing matters of most concern to Trump’s base.“I don’t know whether Suzanne Scott is a Trump-hating RINO. I do know what her business model is,” he alleged.“Scott feeds the audience conservative red meat – Democrat socialists, biological men in women’s sports, illegal alien rapists and murderers – but keeps it inside guardrails that wall off MAGA themes such as election integrity, Big Pharma and benefits of the Trump tariffs.”Navarro also claimed to have been “shadowbanned” by Scott, although he has appeared on the network in the past.The president made clear his unhappiness about Baritromo’s departure, praising her as “a total professional, and a true warrior.” Fox has shown an increased wariness about entertaining election fraud claims since it was sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems after airing MAGA conspiracy theories in the aftermath of the 2020 vote, ultimately settling the case for $787.5 million in April 2023. Another case brought by Smartmatic, which also manufactures voting machines, is still pending.