President Donald Trump said Friday he plans to sue the BBC for as much as $5 billion, accusing the broadcaster of airing an edited version of his January 6, 2021, speech that he claims distorted his remarks and misled the public. The confrontation has already triggered apologies from the BBC, denials of defamation, and the abrupt departures of the organization’s director-general and head of news.
“We’ll sue them for anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I think I have to do it. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
The dispute centers on a “Panorama” segment that stitched together distant moments from Trump’s speech—his call for supporters to march to the Capitol and a line delivered more than 50 minutes later, “We fight. We fight like hell”—creating the appearance that the statements were made consecutively. Trump’s legal team had given the BBC until Friday to retract the edit, apologize, and agree to compensation.
In a correction Thursday night, the BBC conceded the edit “gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action,” and said the segment would be pulled. A spokesperson for BBC Chair Samir Shah said he had sent a personal apology to the White House but maintained that “while the broadcaster sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”
Former BBC Director-General Tony Hall added over the weekend that the corporation should not pay Trump anything. “You’re talking about public money,” he told the BBC. “It would not be appropriate.”
In an interview with GB News on Friday, Trump said the edit was “impossible to believe”.
“I made a beautiful statement, and they made it into a not beautiful statement,” he said. “Fake news was a great term, except it’s not strong enough. This is beyond fake, this is corrupt.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer weighed in earlier in the week, urging the BBC to “get their house in order” on accuracy while defending the institution’s independence. “The BBC must uphold the highest standards, be accountable and correct errors quickly,” he said. “But I will always stand up for a strong, independent BBC.”
The blowback contributed to the resignations of Director-General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness last week. Turness said the controversy was damaging the broadcaster and that “as the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me.”
Trump has previously extracted sizable settlements from American media outlets. In July, Paramount resolved a dispute involving CBS News’ “60 Minutes” over what Trump said was a manipulated interview clip with then-Vice President Kamala Harris that affected the 2024 election.
