Reports in the United States say that President Donald Trump is threatening to sue the BBC for $1 billion, after the British broadcaster allegedly edited a video of him speaking about the Capitol riot in a misleading way.
Trump’s legal team sent a formal letter to the BBC accusing the network of “false, defamatory, demeaning, and inciting statements” following the broadcast of a Panorama documentary about Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech. The documentary omitted the section where Trump urged demonstrators to “act peacefully,” instead portraying him as inciting the crowd to storm the U.S. Capitol.
The controversy surrounding the edited footage led to the resignations of BBC Director-General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness earlier this week.
In the legal warning letter, Trump’s attorneys wrote: “Because of their malicious nature, the fabricated statements broadcast by the BBC were widely disseminated across various digital platforms, reaching tens of millions of people around the world. As a result, the BBC has caused President Trump immense financial and reputational damage.”
The letter demands that the BBC remove all false, defamatory, misleading, and inciting content about Trump from the documentary, issue a public apology for its alleged bias, and pay substantial financial compensation to the former president.
“If the BBC fails to comply by November 14, 2025, at 5:00 p.m., President Trump will have no choice but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, including filing a lawsuit seeking no less than $1 billion in damages,” the letter states.