U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that he intends to sue the BBC over the way his 6 January 2021 speech was edited for a Panorama documentary, accusing the broadcaster of altering his words and creating a misleading impression.
The BBC has apologised for the error but has declined to offer financial compensation.
Speaking aboard Air Force One on Friday evening, Trump said: “We’ll sue them for anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week.”
The BBC admitted on Thursday that its edit had “unintentionally given the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.” The corporation apologised and confirmed the programme would not be aired again, but it rejected demands for compensation.
The apology followed a formal threat from Trump’s legal team, who demanded a retraction, an apology, and $1 billion in damages. Trump accused the BBC of deliberately distorting his remarks: “They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
Trump said he had not yet discussed the matter with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, though Starmer had requested a conversation. Trump added that he planned to call him over the weekend.
A review of public court filings on Friday evening showed that no lawsuit had yet been filed in federal or state court in Florida.
In a separate interview recorded on Saturday—before his Air Force One comments—Trump insisted he had an “obligation” to take legal action:
“If you don’t do it, you don’t stop it from happening again with other people.”
He labelled the edit “egregious” and said it was “worse than the Kamala thing,” referring to a previous dispute with CBS over a 60 Minutes interview with then–2024 election opponent Kamala Harris. In July, Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to settle that case.
The Panorama controversy centres on how the programme combined two separate portions of Trump’s 6 January speech—delivered more than 50 minutes apart. In the original speech, Trump first told his supporters:
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
Nearly an hour later, he said:
“And we fight. We fight like hell.”
In the Panorama version, the two lines were spliced together, making it appear as if he 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 fallout from the editing error has been significant, leading to the resignations of BBC Director General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness.
In its updated Corrections and Clarifications notice published Thursday evening, the BBC said the programme had been thoroughly reviewed after widespread criticism of how the speech was edited.
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