President Trump is searching again for a White House press secretary after Katie Zacharia’s five-day exit, and reporting points to Maria Bartiromo as a possible pick.
The vacancy opened fast. Trump named the 41-year-old conservative commentator Katie Zacharia on October 9 to succeed Karoline Leavitt. Five days later, Zacharia stepped down after the president asked her to “reconsider” her position.
That left the podium open once more. Trump later told Fox News’ Peter Doocy he is in “no rush” to name a replacement. Still, coverage has circled back to a familiar name: Maria Bartiromo, the longtime Fox Business and Fox News host who left the network in early September.
The Mirror reported that many believe Bartiromo could be the next White House press secretary, laying out the public signals around her exit, Trump’s praise, and earlier interest in her for the job.
Zacharia arrived as Leavitt’s successor after Leavitt’s August departure. The appointment put a self-described attorney and conservative media figure into one of the most visible jobs in Washington.
It did not last. The president asked her to “reconsider,” and she left five days after taking the post. Headlines framed the episode as a firing; the underlying account is that she stepped down once Trump pressed her to rethink the role.
Leavitt’s own path has stayed tied to the same talent lane between the White House and cable news, including reports that Karoline Leavitt was set to join Fox News as an on-air contributor after leaving the administration.
Trump has not raced to lock in the next name. His message to Doocy was plain: no rush. That pause has only fed the speculation machine.
Bartiromo, 59, spent more than 12 years at Fox. She hosted Mornings with Maria and Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street on Fox Business, plus Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo on Fox News.
On September 3, Fox Business announced the split. The statement was titled “Fox News Media Parts Ways With Maria Bartiromo.” Fox News Media thanked her “for her work over the last 12 ½ years and wished her all the best on her next chapter.” Her biography later came down from the network site.
She has not given a full public account of the break. On September 10 she posted a short note of thanks on X:
"Thank you to all friends & followers for your amazing words I am so grateful for the outpouring of love. I love you all,"
Network turbulence after high-profile exits is familiar ground. Fox has already moved pieces on the board, including when Fox News tapped Larry Kudlow as a temporary Sunday Morning Futures host following her departure.
Trump did not stay quiet about her exit. On Truth Social he praised her record and reach:
"I can’t believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show(s) on FoxNews/Business. Three different shows, always number one. Maria is a total professional and a true warrior. Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy. God bless you, Maria!"
That endorsement matters in a personnel hunt run from the top. It also fits a longer pattern of Trump speaking directly about Fox talent and coverage choices, including when Trump hit Fox News over platforming Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn.
Before Zacharia took the job, Trump had already shown interest in Bartiromo for press secretary, according to the same reporting chain. Axios, citing two administration sources, said she “signaled she was not going to take the job.” CNN commentator Scott Jennings was also described as “in contention,” though he was not issued an offer.
How Bartiromo left Fox remains contested in public. Status, a media outlet, reported she had leaked texts to the White House about a directive not to promote Trump’s claims about the 2020 election. The Mirror account said it was not immediately clear whether she was approached by a White House official or by Trump himself.
Her lawyer, Bryan Freedman, rejected firing narratives outright in comments to The Independent:
"Those reporting her firing or the incredulous facts supporting that fiction have exhibited a complete and utter reckless disregard for the truth."
Background in the same coverage notes Fox News agreed to pay a company formerly called Dominion Voting Systems about $787 million in a defamation case tied to the network’s coverage of 2020 election claims. That settlement is separate from the press secretary hunt, but it is part of the climate around election coverage fights inside cable news.
Fox personalities and Trump have collided in public before. One recent example is the fallout described when Jessica Tarlov said a Trump Truth Social post left her shaken and later detailed it in a book.
None of this is an appointment. Trump has not named Bartiromo. She has not announced she would take the role now. The earlier Axios account said she signaled she would not take it when interest surfaced before Zacharia’s brief tenure.
What is on the record is simpler. Leavitt left in August. Zacharia lasted five days after an October 9 appointment and stepped down when Trump asked her to reconsider. Bartiromo left Fox on September 3 after more than a dozen years. Trump praised her in public, said he is in no rush to fill the podium, and had previously been linked to her as a candidate.
The press secretary job demands speed, loyalty, and the ability to carry the administration’s case under constant fire. Bartiromo’s years hosting business and Sunday shows built a national audience and a reputation as a tough questioner on economics and politics. Whether that translates into the West Wing briefing room is a decision only Trump can make.
Other names will surface. Jennings already did. The White House can wait, as Trump said. Markets, Congress, and foreign capitals will not stop for the search.
Leavitt’s post-White House move toward Fox underscored how porous the border remains between the administration and the networks that cover it, a point reinforced as Karoline Leavitt joined Fox News in the contributor lane after her exit.
For now the podium sits empty again, Bartiromo is free of her old shows, and the president who called her a professional and a warrior has an opening to fill on his own timetable.
Voters hired Trump to staff the government with people who can fight for his agenda in public, and a brief tenure at the podium is a reminder that the job rewards clarity, not audition theater.
