Given Neil Cavuto’s longstanding beef with Donald Trump, it certainly would be juicy if it turned out that his exit from Fox News had something to do with the latter’s re-election. However, it turns out that the real reason he left was financial.

Some will remember that Cavuto announced his exit from Fox News just before Christmas 2024. In his final broadcast, he made sure to note that he wasn’t retiring but just walking away from the network, and that could have been easily misconstrued as a shady dig. After all, Trump was set to return to office not long after, and with Fox News known for generally praising the president, he might not have wanted to stick around. However, almost as if to clarify that that wasn’t the case, Cavuto gushed over how much he’d loved his time at the network. “I’m forever grateful to my bosses here. They’ve been very good to me these many years, and offered a very generous opportunity for me to stay years more,” he said. Cavuto also added that their generosity was even more appreciated when taking into account just how much time he’d taken off over the years (as many know, Cavuto has faced a ton of tragedy when it comes to his health).

So, what prompted his exit, then? Though Cavuto didn’t say so himself, an insider who spoke with CNN claimed that though he’d been asked to remain at the network, they had also asked him to take a pay cut. We certainly don’t begrudge him for that. While Cavuto is among the richest Fox News anchors, he also wasn’t in the top three, earning just a fraction of what his colleagues Sean Hannity, Bret Baier, and Laura Ingraham were getting. Even so, he’s sure to be missed by many.

Neil Cavuto’s exit had nothing to do with Trump

Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images

Well, Neil Cavuto won’t be missed by everyone. For starters, Donald Trump didn’t even try to hold back his glee at the news that Cavuto would be leaving the network. In a post to Truth Social, which we wouldn’t be surprised to hear he penned while listening to “No One Mourns the Wicked,” Trump gushed, “GOOD NEWS FOR AMERICA! Neil Cavuto, the lowest rated anchor on Fox, by far, is leaving — Should have happened a long time ago!”

It’s a little poetic that just hours before he posted his thoughts on Cavuto’s exit, Trump also shared another caps-laden comment on his social media platform. “EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND!!!” he wrote. It’s not clear if that sentiment was still top of mind when he learned that one of the only Fox News anchors who made it clear that he didn’t want to be his friend had tendered his resignation. Either way, in the wake of the juvenile attack on him, Cavuto opted not to respond. That, in itself, was fitting, because it stayed true to something Cavuto told Trump on live TV back in 2019. Responding to a post that Trump had made on X, then known as Twitter, about Fox News no longer working for his supporters, he’d pointed out, “I don’t work for you. My job is to cover you, not fawn over you or rip you. Just report on you.” Ouch.

As Cavuto pointed out in his final sign-off, he isn’t planning on quitting journalism altogether, so there’s a good chance we’ll continue to hear him call Trump out in the future — when he sees fit. Even so, we doubt we’ll ever hear him lash out in his private capacity because, as he’s proven in the past, he’s above that.

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