Murdoch, founder of Fox News, although Smith's representatives cautioned against conflating the two events.

Trump has been increasingly critical of personalities on Fox News that he views as disloyal. On Thursday, the president cited Smith and Fox analysts Andrew Napolitano and Donna Brazile in a tweet that said, "Fox News doesn't deliver for US anymore. It is so different than it used to be."

Asked about it later, Trump said, "Is he leaving? Oh, that's a shame. Is he leaving because he had bad ratings?"

Smith's show averaged nearly 1.3 million viewers the last three months, the Nielsen company said. That beats CNN and MSNBC. Fox's prime-time lineup, with more viewers available, generally gets around 3 million viewers.

Neil Cavuto, who anchors the broadcast following Smith's, looked shocked after his colleague madethe announcement.

"Whoa," Cavuto said. "Like you, I'm a little stunned."

Smith was one of Fox News Channel's original hires in 1996, and was a particular favorite of Roger Ailes, the former Fox chairman who was ousted in 2016 following misconduct charges and died the following spring. While he often angered many of Fox's conservative viewers, Smith's work was most prominently cited by the network when it received criticism for being too partisan.

On his afternoon newscast, Smith had frequently given tough reports debunking statements made by Trump and his supporters — even the Fox News opinion hosts that rule the network's prime-time lineup.

Two weeks ago, Smith clashed with Tucker Carlson that started when Napolitano, speaking on Smith's program, said that it was a crime for Trump to solicit aid for