The US president tightens his tone towards the BBC: He wants to sue the British broadcaster over a controversial documentary that falsified Trump’s statements. The deadline set by Trump’s lawyers previously has expired.
US President Donald Trump wants to sue the BBC and demand billions of dollars from the British broadcaster. The lawsuit will be filed “probably sometime next week” and will seek an amount of between one billion and five billion dollars, the Republican said aboard the presidential flight Air Force One. Trump had previously threatened the BBC with such a move in a letter.
The backdrop was a documentary by a British television station in which Trump’s speech was edited together to give the impression that he had called for the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump had just been removed from office at the time and in his speech to his supporters spread the false claim that he had been deprived of his election victory due to fraud.
“I think I should do that, I mean, they even admitted that they manipulated,” Trump said of the lawsuit. “You changed my words.” He also announced he would speak to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer about the incident at the weekend.
The BBC sees no basis for taking legal action
Trump’s lawyers on Sunday had threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion in damages and demanded an apology and withdrawal of the film. They gave the BBC a deadline of Friday evening and threatened to sue for at least a billion US dollars (equivalent to around 860 million euros). Hours after the deadline, Trump announced he wanted to sue.
The BBC apologized on Thursday for editing the 2024 documentary and announced it would no longer show the film – but rejected a defamation lawsuit. “The BBC sincerely regrets the way the video clip was edited, but firmly believes that there is no basis for a defamation claim,” the broadcaster said.
BBC chairman Samir Shah previously described the cuts as a “misjudgment” before a parliamentary committee. The case was cited as the main reason for the resignation of TV channel boss Tim Davie and news reporter Deborah Turness.
With information from Samuel Jackisch, ARD Washington
