Donald Trump has confirmed he will sue the BBC for damages between $1 billion and $5 billion over an edited Panorama episode. The US president told reporters on board Air Force One: "anywhere between $1bn and $5bn probably sometime next week."
He accused the broadcaster of deliberately distorting his words from a January 6, 2021 speech. The BBC apologized for the edit but refuses to pay compensation.
The controversy centers on a Panorama episode from October 2024 that combined two separate parts of Trump's Capitol speech. Trump made the two parts more than 50 minutes apart. The edit created the impression that Trump said: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol… and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell." The BBC called it an "error of judgment" that gave a "mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action." Trump responded: "They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth."
Political Divide
UK politicians split on how to respond. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey told BBC Sundays with Laura Kuenssberg: "If we allow that to happen, Trump's America becomes Farage's Britain." He called it "quite outrageous" for a foreign head of government to undermine public institutions. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp, while calling Trump the "wronged party," said: "I don't think sending some of it over to Mar-a-Lago would be a smart thing to do."
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood urged the BBC to "get your house in order" while supporting the broadcaster's role in providing impartial news. A BBC spokesperson said Saturday: "We have had no further contact from President Trump's lawyers at this point. Our position remains the same."
Legal Questions
The scandal has already led to the resignations of BBC director-general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness. The broadcaster stated it will not re-air the episode.
Questions persist about whether a defamation case can succeed, given the UK's one-year statute of limitations and that the episode aired more than a year ago.
Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
