Trump endorses Komatireddy to challenge New York Attorney General James
The former president backs Saritha Komatireddy in the November race, calling Letitia James the 'most corrupt' attorney general
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Trump Endorses Letitia James Challenger for New York AG
Photograph: Internewscast (embedded from source)
What this story says
- Donald Trump endorsed Saritha Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, to challenge New York Attorney General Letitia James in November.
- Trump’s endorsement follows a New York appeals court overturning his $465 million fraud penalty, which James had secured in 2022.
- Komatireddy, nominated by Trump to a federal judgeship in 2020, has criticised James’ handling of fraud investigations.
- No left-rated outlet carried the story, though two centre and five right-rated outlets did.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 6 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .
Trust
74/100
Craft
58/100
Hype
42/100
6 sources · methodology
Thin on the left so far
None of the 6 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
Donald Trump endorsed Saritha Komatireddy, a Republican, to challenge New York Attorney General Letitia James in the November election. Trump announced the endorsement on Truth Social, calling James the "most corrupt Attorney General in the Country" and framing Komatireddy as a law-and-order alternative. Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor and Drug Enforcement Administration chief of staff, was nominated by Trump to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in 2020.
The endorsement escalates Trump’s long-running feud with James, who sued Trump and The Trump Organization in 2022 for fraudulently inflating asset values on financial documents. A New York appeals court later overturned the nearly $465 million penalty imposed on Trump, ruling that the disgorgement award violated the Constitution’s ban on excessive fines. Trump has repeatedly called for James to be prosecuted over mortgage fraud allegations.
Komatireddy thanked Trump for the endorsement on X, writing that she was "working hard to win the support of all New Yorkers and defeat Letitia James this November." Neither Komatireddy’s nor James’ campaigns responded to requests for comment, as reported by Fox News Digital and the New York Post.
What the coverage left out
No left-rated outlet ran the story. None of the right-rated digests mentioned Komatireddy’s background as a former federal prosecutor or her clerkship for Brett Kavanaugh. The centre-rated report from Internewscast was the only one to carry Komatireddy’s statement thanking Trump for the endorsement.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 6 times, most recently on 16 Aug 2026, 01:30, and will add the sides that appear.
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
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated left has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Centre
1 rated outlet
- Internewscast led on Trump’s endorsement of Komatireddy as an effort to unseat "one of his most prominent political adversaries." The report carried Trump’s full statement on Truth Social, including his claim that New York had "gone to HELL" under James and Governor Kathy Hochul. It noted Komatireddy’s résumé as a former federal prosecutor and her clerkship for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The report also detailed the appeals court’s decision to overturn Trump’s $465 million penalty.
Right
5 rated outlets
- The New York Post and the five right-rated digests all led on Trump’s criticism of James as a "complete and total disaster" and the "worst Attorney General in our Country." The Post’s full report quoted Trump’s description of James’ 2022 gubernatorial primary campaign, in which she "got less than 1% of the Vote in the Polls, and QUIT." It also carried Trump’s framing of Komatireddy as a candidate who would "Ensure LAW AND ORDER" and "Defend our always under siege Second Amendment."
- The digests from ussanews.com, WND, Fox News and WLTReport all mentioned the overturned $465 million penalty, though none carried Komatireddy’s response on X. WND and WLTReport used Trump’s nickname for James, "Peekaboo," in their headlines. The digests did not include James’ 2022 gubernatorial campaign or her handling of violent crime in New York.
Read it at the source
6 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
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Centre
1Right
5- Trump blasts ‘total disaster’ Letitia James, endorses rival in NY AG race (opens New York Post in a new tab)
New York Post — is New York Post biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Trump slams Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James as ‘worst attorney general in our country’ (opens ussanews.com in a new tab)
ussanews.com — is ussanews.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Trump slams Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James as ‘worst attorney general in our country’ * WorldNetDaily * by Bob Unruh (opens WND in a new tab)
- Trump backs Republican challenger to oust Letitia James amid ongoing mortgage fraud feud (opens Fox News in a new tab)
- President Trump Endorses Letitia James Challenger — And His Message Is Absolutely Brutal (opens WLTReport in a new tab)
Not rated
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Trump endorses Komatireddy to challenge New York Attorney General James?
- Of the 6 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 0% are rated left, 17% are rated centre, 83% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Trump endorses Komatireddy to challenge New York Attorney General James left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 6 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of Trump endorses Komatireddy to challenge New York Attorney General James biased?
- Trump endorses Komatireddy to challenge New York Attorney General James is one event reported by 6 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 endorses Komatireddy to challenge New York Attorney General James?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated left 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 endorses Komatireddy to challenge New York Attorney General James?
- 6 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.
- Why did Trump endorse Komatireddy?
- Trump endorsed Saritha Komatireddy to challenge New York Attorney General Letitia James, calling James the "most corrupt" attorney general and framing Komatireddy as a law-and-order alternative. Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, has criticised James’ handling of fraud investigations, including the case that led to Trump’s $465 million penalty, later overturned.
- What was the $465 million penalty Trump faced?
- Letitia James sued Trump and The Trump Organization in 2022 for fraudulently inflating asset values on financial documents. A New York court initially imposed a $465 million penalty, but an appeals court overturned it, ruling the disgorgement award violated the Constitution’s ban on excessive fines. The case is part of Trump’s ongoing feud with James.
- Which outlets covered Trump’s endorsement?
- Two centre-rated outlets and five right-rated outlets covered the story, including Internewscast and the New York Post. No left-rated outlet carried it. The right-rated reports emphasised Trump’s criticism of James, while the centre-rated report detailed Komatireddy’s background and the overturned penalty.
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