Donald Trump plans to sue the BBC for up to $5 billion over a controversial documentary. “We will sue them for a billion to five billion dollars, probably sometime next week,” the US president told reporters on board the presidential plane Air Force One on Friday. “I think I have to do this. You even admitted to cheating,” he continued.
“The people of Britain are very angry about what happened, as you can imagine, because it shows that the BBC is fake news,” Trump continued. He plans to speak to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the BBC. Starmer supports the broadcaster’s independence, but has not opposed Trump. “I will call him at the weekend,” said the US President.
Donald Trump demands apology from BBC
Trump gave the broadcaster until Friday to apologize and pay compensation. At its core, the lawsuit is about a compilation of a speech by Trump on January 6, 2021, which the broadcaster used for the “Panorama” program. The broadcast took place shortly before the presidential election in November 2024, which Trump won against Democrat Kamala Harris. Trump’s legal team recently threatened legal action over the broadcast and demanded that several steps be taken to avert a lawsuit before a deadline on Friday.
For the broadcast, the BBC edited passages from different parts of Trump’s speech to his supporters at the time. That day there was a violent storming of the Capitol in the US capital Washington, where the election victory of Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden was to be officially confirmed.
Resignation of General Director and Head of News
Trump – then voted out of office after his first term (2017-2021) but still in office – repeated in his speech his repeatedly refuted claim that he had been deprived of his election victory through fraud. After the speech, Trump’s supporters stormed the parliament building.
BBC Director General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness resigned following criticism of the editing of Trump’s speech. BBC President Samir Shah apologized to Trump in a letter, according to the broadcaster. However, at the same time, Shah stated that “we strongly believe that there is no basis for a defamation suit.”
The BBC now admits mistakes. The broadcast unintentionally gave the impression that it was a coherent section of speech. This could give the impression that Trump had directly called for violence, it said BBC-Website. The broadcaster also apologized to Trump. Although she did BBC announced on the website that the show would no longer be broadcast. However, the broadcaster did not want to pay compensation. The media company saw no basis for a defamation lawsuit.
