Trump Says He Will Sue BBC For Billions Over Edited Panorama Clip
President Donald J. Trump confirmed Friday that he intends to move forward with a sweeping multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the BBC, accusing the taxpayer-funded broadcaster of deliberately manipulating one of his speeches in a Panorama documentary. Speaking aboard Air Force One, the president made clear he expects to take action within days. “We’ll sue them from $1bn to $5bn, probably sometime next week,” he told reporters.
Trump said the edit was not a mistake but an intentional deception. “We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth,” he said, according to ITV.
The president noted he had not yet spoken with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer about the controversy but expected to do so over the weekend.
His comments came one day after the BBC issued a formal apology admitting its edited sequence of Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech created the “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.” The corporation called the splice an “error of judgment” — but also made clear it had no intention of offering compensation.
A BBC spokesperson reiterated that stance Saturday, saying, “We have had no further contact from President Trump’s lawyers at this point. Our position remains the same.”
Trump said during an interview with GB News host Bev Turner that pursuing the case is a matter of principle. “I think I have an obligation to do it,” he said. “I’m not looking to get into lawsuits, but I think I have an obligation to do it. This was so egregious if you don’t. You don’t stop it from happening again with other people.”
The BBC acknowledged that its chairman, Samir Shah, personally apologized in a letter to the White House and that its legal team has been in communication with Trump’s lawyers. Despite the apology, the broadcaster continues to maintain that “while the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”
The fallout has already shaken the BBC’s leadership. Director-General Tim Davie and BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness resigned following the controversy — an extraordinary development for a broadcaster long defended by Britain’s political establishment.
Still, legacy media veterans rushed to defend the corporation. Roger Mosey, a former BBC director of news, told ITV News that Trump was “playing politics.” He dismissed the potential damages sought, saying, “Of course, he has a right to be aggrieved by the way the BBC edited the Panorama programme. If he so aggrieved, it’s worth £5 billion? I don’t quite believe that.” He added, “He didn’t even know he had been libelled in this way until a week ago and somehow it has become the most damaging thing in his career.”
Legal analysts, meanwhile, are split on how far Trump’s case can go. They say he would have to show the edit was false, defamatory, harmful, and made with “actual malice.” In Britain, the one-year statute of limitations for defamation has already passed — the documentary aired in October 2024.
Florida law offers a two-year window, but experts note that any U.S. lawsuit would require Trump to demonstrate that the Panorama documentary was accessible in Florida, a potentially difficult hurdle given that it never aired in the United States.
The situation also creates a political dilemma for Starmer, who must tread carefully between defending the BBC’s editorial independence and managing a diplomatic clash with the sitting President of the United States. Although publicly funded, the BBC operates independently of the government — and any hint of intervention by Downing Street could spark concerns of political interference. Yet if Starmer stays out of it entirely, the broadcaster may find itself locked in a protracted, costly legal standoff with Trump.