Trump Favorite To Host Sunday Morning Futures After Bartiromo’s Exit

Fox News is turning to Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump’s former top economic adviser and a leading voice on Fox Business, to host “Sunday Morning Futures” while Maria Bartiromo remains off the air.

Kudlow will take over the program’s 10 a.m. Sunday slot on an interim basis, with his assignment scheduled to run through the weekend following the November midterm elections. Fox News Channel says a permanent host will be announced later.

The decision gives the network an established conservative broadcaster to lead the program during the closing weeks of a campaign that will determine control of Congress. It also leaves unanswered questions about the future of Bartiromo, whose interviews helped make the show a regular stop for Republican lawmakers and administration officials.

Bartiromo’s last appearance on “Mornings with Maria” was August 9. According to Variety, she has not appeared on either Fox News or Fox Business since that broadcast.

Her attorney, Bryan Freedman, has said she remains employed by Fox News Media. That distinction matters: the decision to install another host on her Sunday program does not establish that the network has terminated her employment.

Fox has not publicly explained the circumstances surrounding her absence, announced a return date or identified another on-air assignment for her.

The lack of a detailed explanation has fueled speculation, including a Variety report citing an unnamed source who believes Bartiromo shared a confidential Fox Business directive with the White House.

According to that account, the directive concerned instructions to executive producers about coverage of Trump’s public remarks.

The report remains an allegation attributed to an anonymous source. It has not been publicly established as a finding against Bartiromo, and neither the allegation nor her extended absence demonstrates that she has been fired.

What Fox has confirmed is the immediate programming change: Kudlow will lead the Sunday broadcast for now, with its longer-term leadership still to be determined.

The appointment places the show in the hands of a host whose career has spanned financial markets, Republican economic policymaking and decades of television commentary.

Kudlow joined Fox Business in 2021 after serving as director of the National Economic Council during Trump’s first administration. In that role, he was one of the president’s most prominent economic advisers.

His experience in Republican policy circles reaches back considerably further. He advised President Ronald Reagan and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman on economic issues, while also holding senior positions in finance.

Before his move to Fox, Kudlow spent years at CNBC, where he combined market analysis with arguments about taxes, government spending and economic growth.

He frequently appeared alongside Jim Cramer, the former hedge fund manager who became one of financial television’s best-known personalities.

At Fox Business, Kudlow developed his afternoon program into the network’s most-watched show. Its guest list has included Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Elon Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

That experience gives him an established footing with many of the political and business figures likely to feature in the Sunday program’s election coverage.

It also provides continuity with the subject matter Bartiromo emphasized.

“Sunday Morning Futures” developed around the connection between decisions in Washington and their consequences for markets, businesses and households. Interviews with Republican officeholders and debates over conservative policy became central features of the broadcast.

Kudlow’s own work has concentrated on much of the same ground: tax rates, regulation, federal spending and the extent to which government policy helps or hinders private enterprise.

His economic perspective places particular emphasis on individual choice and allowing Americans to retain more of what they earn.

“I like people to be able to spend their own money,” Kudlow told Variety in a 2021 interview.

He also said he wanted people to enjoy as much freedom as possible, an outlook that has remained a consistent feature of his broadcasting.

For Fox, the temporary assignment offers a recognizable host with both White House experience and an established television audience at a consequential political moment.

Candidates, congressional leaders and administration officials will be making their closing arguments to voters as the midterm campaign enters its final stretch. Kudlow will now have an additional platform from which to question them about the economic and political stakes.

According to Variety, his announced run includes the weekend after the election. Beyond that, Fox has committed only to naming a permanent host at a later date.

Bartiromo’s next move remains unclear. Kudlow’s immediate assignment, however, signals that Fox intends to keep a prominent conservative economic voice at the center of its Sunday lineup.