Eric Bolling

Eric Thomas Bolling (born March 2, 1963) is an American television personality, conservative political commentator, author, and financial commentator.

He has occupied numerous roles as a commentator on financial issues for television, most notably for Fox News.

In 1984 he graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, with a Bachelor of Arts in economics.

He also played college baseball at Rollins.

The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Bolling in the 22nd round of the 1984 Major League Baseball draft.

His baseball career was cut short by a torn rotator cuff injury.

Bolling worked as a commodities trader on Wall Street.

For five years, he was a board member of the New York Mercantile Exchange, later becoming a strategic advisor to the exchange.

Bolling was one of several analysts who appeared on CNBC's Fast Money as a panelist.

Bolling joined Fox Business Network in March 2008 as a financial analyst.

In 2008, Bolling was named a co-host (joining Cody Willard and Rebecca Diamond) of Happy Hour, a market commentary show in the 5 p.m. time slot.

In June 2011 on the Fox Business Network, Bolling criticized President Barack Obama's decision to meet with Gabon's president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, in the White House.

Bolling remarked, "Guess who's coming to dinner? A dictator."

He then went on to also criticize Obama for allowing rapper Common to appear in the White House a few weeks before, exclaiming "it's not the first time he's had a hoodlum in the hizzouse."

Progressive group Media Matters criticized Bolling, saying "Calling the president of Gabon and Common 'hoods in the hizzy' is not colorful commentary, it is overt racism."

Bolling first defended himself on Twitter before later apologizing, saying, "We got a little fast and loose with the language, and we know it's been interpreted as being disrespectful, and for that, I'm sorry."

Media Matters also criticized Bolling for his on-air promotion of citizenship conspiracy theories about Barack Obama ("birtherism") and conspiracy theories about the murder of Seth Rich, as well as for his claim in 2011 that "liberal Hollywood was using class warfare" in a Muppets movie "to brainwash our kids" and his claim in 2012 that "Every terrorist on American soil has been a Muslim."

After hosting Fox Business Channel's Follow the Money with Eric Bolling, he became the host of the channel's Cashin' In in 2013, replacing Cheryl Casone.

The program ran on Saturdays.

Bolling also co-hosted Fox News Channel's The Five.

Bolling has been an outspoken and longtime supporter of Donald Trump, vocally supporting him since the launch of his presidential campaign in 2015.

An outspoken supporter of Donald Trump, Bolling has published two books: Wake Up America (2016) and The Swamp: Washington's Murky Pool of Corruption and Cronyism and How Trump Can Drain It (2017).

Trump and Bolling first met on the set of The Apprentice about ten years before Trump's 2016 presidential campaign; the two were introduced by Mark Burnett, a mutual friend, and went on to develop close ties.

In November 2016, after Trump's election but before his inauguration, Bolling was considered by Trump for an appointment in the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the following month, Bolling described himself as "fortunate enough to have a close relationship with the incoming administration."

He hosted Fox Business Channel's Cashin' In and Fox News Channel's The Five before leaving in May 2017.

In September 2017, Bolling was ousted from Fox News, after the network conducted an independent investigation following an article published by HuffPost reporting that Bolling had sent unsolicited lewd photographs and text messages to three female colleagues.

Bolling denied the allegations.

He later hosted the television shows America on TheBlaze and America This Week produced by Sinclair Broadcast Group and carried by their stations as a Sunday morning talk show.

He currently hosts a weeknight hour-long program, Eric Bolling The Balance, on Newsmax TV, which premiered in July 2021.

Bolling was born in Chicago and attended grade school at Queen of All Saints Basilica school and high school at Loyola Academy.

In 2017, Bob Beckel said that Bolling and Roger Ailes saved his life after performing the Heimlich maneuver on him at a restaurant.

While at Fox, Bolling was a guest host on several Fox News opinion shows, such as The O'Reilly Factor, and Fox and Friends.

In April 2017, as part of prime-time lineup changes with Bill O'Reilly's exit, Fox announced that The Five would be moving to the 9 p.m. time slot.

Fox News Specialists was created to replace The Five in the 5 p.m. time slot, with Bolling serving as a co-host alongside Katherine Timpf and Eboni Williams.

The program premiered on May 1, 2017, but was cancelled when Bolling departed the network.

Bolling describes his commentary as "really right wing, hard-core conservative commentaries" and has said, "I think this is what my brand personally is all about."

Bolling's promotion to hosting his own show on Fox News, effective at the beginning of May 2017, was seen as a victory for the Trump White House.

Bolling interviewed Trump more than six times over his presidency.

On August 4, 2017, HuffPost reported that several years before and on separate occasions, Bolling allegedly sent unsolicited lewd text messages and lewd photos to three female colleagues at Fox News or Fox Business Network.

He is also accused of making "wildly inappropriate" comments to female employees.