President Trump could not hide his happiness when he heard the news that Shepard Smith had said his final goodbye and had left Fox News.

Trump despised Smith because Smith was one of the few at Fox News that was willing to call out the president for his lies and actions.

Fox News wants us to believe that Smith just all of the sudden decided to leave on Friday, before the Columbus Day holiday weekend.

Anyone that has worked in TV news, knows it just doesn’t work like that.

Smith joined Fox News when it launched in 1996, he has been there since the beginning.

I worked with Shepard Smith in Miami years ago. I don’t know him well, but I do know him. I do believe that Smith wanted out at Fox News, but I don’t believe that it was as clean as the network wants you to think.

Smith was at a hard right-leaning network but was hated by the hard right. He was hated for not kissing up to Trump and for calling Trump out. In other words, Smith told the truth and reported the truth.

He took a lot of punches from both outside and inside Fox News.

Fox insiders tell FTVLive that both Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity said disparaging things about Smith behind his back and in Carlson’s case even on air.

But, now Smith has walked and as one TV newsie that used to work at Fox said that is “half of Fox News's objectivity walking out the door.”

It might be more like three quarters.

Someone inside Fox News told FTVLive, ""We're shocked!" adding, "He is one of the few at FNC that will end up on the right side of history."

Many of the Fox News base will not be sorry to see Smith go. But, Smith often help keep Fox News from failing hard off the right-wing edge. He knew what he was saying was not going to make the Fox News viewers happy, but he also knew that someone at the network needed to say it.

The big question is, who is left at Fox to do that?

We might never know the real reason that Smith got up and left in the middle of October just a year out from the 2020 election, but I can assure you, it was not all neat and tidy that Fox News wants you to believe.

I might have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night.