Skip to the story
All stories

Trump attacks oil firms and US Attorney in speech as poll rating hits low

Republican senators demand written confirmation of $1.8bn Justice Department fund’s abolition after Trump ally’s appointment

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
"Oni zarađuju mnogo novca": Tramp napada sve oko sebe dok se politički porazi gomilaju 1

What this story says

  • Donald Trump accused oil companies of exploiting his Iran policy to inflate profits during a Monday speech in the Oval Office.
  • He claimed US Attorney Jeanine Pirou altered court documents to undermine a Lincoln Memorial restoration project he championed.
  • Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche abolished a $1.8bn Justice Department fund, a move Republican senators demanded in writing.
  • Trump’s approval rating dropped to about one-third in a CNN/SSRS poll, the lowest since the January 2021 Capitol riot.

Who covered it

Left 66%(31)Centre 30%(14)Right 4%(2)

Percentages are shares of the 47 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 4 of the 51 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

65/100

Craft

55/100

Hype

35/100

51 sources · methodology

Missing from the right

Only 2 of the 47 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

Donald Trump used a Monday speech in the Oval Office to attack oil companies and the US Attorney for Washington, DC. Dnevni list Danas reported he accused oil executives of profiteering from his Iran policy, singling out Chevron and warning it to lower gasoline prices. Trump also claimed US Attorney Jeanine Pirou, whom he appointed, altered court filings to undermine a Lincoln Memorial restoration project he had personally overseen.

The speech followed the confirmation of Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, as acting attorney general. Dnevni list Danas wrote that Blanche permanently abolished a $1.8 billion Justice Department fund, which Trump had described as a way to compensate political allies. Republican Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis demanded written confirmation of the fund’s abolition, as reported by Dnevni list Danas.

Trump’s approval rating fell to about one-third in a CNN/SSRS poll published last week, according to Dnevni list Danas. The outlet noted this matched the low point of his first term, reached after the January 2021 Capitol riot. The poll identified economic policy and the Iran war as the primary drags on his popularity.

What the coverage left out

No centre- or right-rated outlet ran this story at all. None of the reports below mention the specific legal mechanism by which the $1.8bn fund could theoretically be reactivated, as described by CNN analyst Eli Honig. The left-rated report did not include a response from Jeanine Pirou or Chevron to Trump’s accusations.

Coverage settled. We checked this 20 times and stopped on 10 Aug 2026, 02:30. The figures above are what it finished at.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

31 rated outlets

  • Dnevni list Danas led on Trump’s attacks on oil companies and the US Attorney, framing them as signs of a presidency losing momentum. The report quoted Trump’s accusation that oil executives were "making too much money" from his Iran policy and his warning to Chevron to lower gasoline prices. It described his claim that Pirou had "choked" by altering court filings on the Lincoln Memorial project as an attempt to distance himself from a narrative he had publicly promoted.
  • The outlet highlighted the $1.8bn Justice Department fund’s abolition, calling it a "hidden loss" for Trump despite Blanche’s confirmation. It quoted CNN legal analyst Eli Honig saying the written abolition demanded by senators "legally achieves almost nothing". The report also noted Republican senators’ resistance to Trump’s voting restrictions bill and Senator Susan Collins’ move to block a rule expanding political appointees’ control over federal grants.
  • Dnevni list Danas used Trump’s own words to describe Pirou, quoting him calling her a "longtime ally" who had "folded like an umbrella". It contrasted his portrayal of the Iran war as a short-term strategy to control oil markets with the reality of prolonged supply disruptions and closed shipping routes. The report framed his approval rating drop as tied to economic policy and the Iran conflict, citing the CNN/SSRS poll.

Centre

14 rated outlets

  • The three centre-rated outlets led on the U.S. Attorney’s decision to drop charges against four people accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. All three carried the Justice Department’s statement that the damage was caused by a contractor’s botched installation, not vandalism.
  • CBS News and Fact Check included President Trump’s insistence that the pool was vandalised, along with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s claim that evidence of vandalism was provided to the U.S. Attorney’s office. The Staten Island Advance did not mention these claims. CBS News alone quoted Trump calling the decision to drop charges a mistake and Pirro’s handling of the case a choke.
  • CBS News reported statements from defence lawyers for three of the accused, describing the charges as fabricated and politically motivated. Neither Fact Check nor the Staten Island Advance included these statements or named the defendants.

Right

2 rated outlets

  • The two right-rated digests led on acts of vandalism at the Reflecting Pool in Washington. Both reported that chemicals were used to damage newly replaced grass. Neither mentioned the poll rating or the attack on oil firms that appeared in other coverage.
  • Il Tempo’s digest quoted Donald Trump directly, calling the damage deliberate and describing the substance as powerful. It included his refusal to name the chemical or the phrase written on the lawn. WPBN’s digest did not carry Trump’s remarks or the detail that the lawn had recently been replaced.
  • Neither digest referred to the US Attorney or the broader political context of the speech. The dropped charges against three accused vandals, reported by WPBN, were not mentioned in Il Tempo’s account.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Trump attacks oil firms and US Attorney in speech as poll rating hits…?
Of the 47 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 66% are rated left, 30% are rated centre, 4% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 51. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Trump attacks oil firms and US Attorney in speech as poll rating hits… left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 47 rated outlets on this story, 66% are rated left, 30% are rated centre, 4% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Trump attacks oil firms and US Attorney in speech as poll rating hits… biased?
Trump attacks oil firms and US Attorney in speech as poll rating hits low is one event reported by 51 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Trump attacks oil firms and US Attorney in speech as poll rating hits…?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Trump attacks oil firms and US Attorney in speech as poll rating hits…?
51 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What did Trump accuse oil companies of doing?
Dnevni list Danas reported Trump accused oil executives of profiteering from his Iran policy, specifically naming Chevron and warning it to lower gasoline prices. He claimed they were "making too much money" from the conflict, which he had framed as a short-term strategy to control global oil markets.
Why did Republican senators demand written confirmation of the fund’s abolition?
Dnevni list Danas wrote that Republican Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis demanded written proof that the $1.8bn Justice Department fund was permanently abolished. The fund, part of a settlement between Trump and the Justice Department, was widely seen as a way to compensate his political allies, and senators wanted to ensure it could not be reactivated.
How low is Trump’s approval rating?
Dnevni list Danas reported Trump’s approval rating fell to about one-third in a CNN/SSRS poll, matching the low point of his first term after the January 2021 Capitol riot. The poll identified economic policy and the Iran war as the primary reasons for the decline.

Read it at the source

51 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

31
Show 23 more

Centre

14
Show 6 more

Right

2

Not rated

4

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

Trump attacks oil firms and US Attorney in speech as poll rating hits low | MediaBias News