Trump threatens $1bln lawsuit against BBC over altered speech footage
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Trump threatens to sue the BBC for $1 billion over a documentary edit of his Capitol riot speech, calling it defamatory and politically motivated.
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US President Donald Trump speaks during an event about drug prices, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington (AP)
US President Donald Trump has warned the BBC of a $1 billion lawsuit, claiming that the broadcaster engaged in "defamatory, malicious" editing of a speech he delivered shortly before the 2021 US Capitol riots, according to a letter obtained by AFP.
Trump’s legal team has set a Friday deadline for the British broadcaster to completely retract the documentary that included the edit, issue an apology, and "appropriately compensate" the president "for the harm caused."
The BBC said earlier on Monday that it would "review" the letter from Trump’s legal team and also issued a public apology for the editing, and on Sunday, the director general of the BBC announced his resignation over the dispute after accusations of the altered speech sprang up.
Trump team cries out ‘malicious, defamatory’ editing
Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, attempting to overturn the certification of his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, but the letter from his legal team claimed that the BBC’s edit created a "false, defamatory, malicious, disparaging, and inflammatory" impression of what he had said in his speech outside the White House.
"Due to their salacious nature, the fabricated statements that were aired by the BBC have been widely disseminated throughout various digital mediums, which have reached tens of millions of people worldwide," the letter further added, emphasizing that "consequently, the BBC has caused President Trump to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm."
A spokesperson for Trump's legal team confirmed that the letter had been sent to the BBC, noting that "the BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the presidential election."
"President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news," the spokesperson added.
Were compliance checks skipped?
In a documentary episode of Panorama titled “Trump: A Second Chance?”, aired by the BBC in late 2024, the broadcaster edited together segments of Trump’s speech from January 6, 2021, the day his supporters stormed the US Capitol, in a way that critics say created a misleading impression.
The BBC’s edit notably excluded Trump’s call for his supporters to march “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol, a line that had been present in the original speech and often cited by his defenders as proof he did not incite violence.
A BBC whistleblower later disclosed that the altered speech had not passed through the usual editorial review process, alleging that senior producers bypassed compliance checks and approved the version based on time constraints and the desire to sharpen the episode’s narrative impact, which they believed would resonate more strongly with international audiences already critical of Trump’s rhetoric.
