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Trump Says He’ll Sue BBC for $1 Billion Over Deceptive Capitol Speech Edit

November 12, 2025  ·
  Trevor Denning
Trump

Donald Trump speaks at a rally the night before being inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States of America - YouTube, Washington Post

President Donald Trump said Tuesday night that he feels an obligation to follow through on his threat to sue the BBC for $1 billion over what he calls deceptive editing in a pre-election documentary.

“I think I have an obligation to do it because you can’t allow people to do that,” Trump told Laura Ingraham on Fox News. “They defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it.”

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The controversy stems from a BBC documentary, Panorama, which aired days before the 2024 election. Former BBC Editorial Guidelines and Standards committee adviser Michael Prescott noted in a memo leaked to The Telegraph that Trump’s January 6th Capitol speech had been deceptively edited.

Panorama showed the president saying: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you and we fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.” However, despite seamless editing, in reality there was a 54-minute gap between the “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you” line and the statement beginning with “and we fight.”

The scandal has thrown the BBC into turmoil. But Trump is determined to hold the broadcaster to account.

British Broadcasting Chaos

After the article in The Telegraph, BBC’s director general Tim Davie and the CEO of News Deborah Turness resigned. In an exit statement, Davie told staff, “While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.”

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Of the resignations, Trump used Truth Social to call Davie and Turness corrupt journalists, adding, “These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election.”

The next morning, the BBC acknowledged receiving a letter from Trump’s lawyers demanding an apology, a full retraction, and a payment to “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused.”

The BBC has until Friday, Nov. 14 at 10 p.m. U.K. time to meet these demands, or “President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages.”

President Trump ABC News

U.S. President Donald Trump sits for an interview with ABC News – YouTube, ABC News

In a letter to the U.K. culture, media and sport committee Monday morning, BBC chair Samir Shah wrote: “The conclusion of that deliberation is that we accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologize for that error of judgement.”

Given that Tuesday evening Trump was still saying he would go through with the lawsuit, it appears Shah’s response wasn’t enough. Trump has a history of following through on his legal threats—and winning—as CBS News, ABC News, and Meta can all attest.

Trump’s Attempts to Hold the Media to Account

In 2024, Trump alleged that 60 Minutes selectively edited an interview with Kamala Harris in an effort to sway the election, resulting in a $16 million settlement. Also in 2024, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News after George Stephanopoulos made multiple false statements about Trump, again resulting in a $16 million settlement.

This January, Meta agreed to a $25 million settlement with Trump for censoring his social media accounts.

Trump Inauguration

Donald Trump speaks at his inauguration in 2017 – YouTube, ABC News

While not all of his lawsuits have been successful in court (lawsuits against CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post have all been dismissed), Trump is doing his best to discourage selective and biased reporting at home, and now abroad.

Do you think the BBC owes Trump an apology? Or is this much ado about nothing? Let us know in the comments!

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Author: Trevor Denning
Trevor Denning’s work has appeared in The Banner, Upstream Reviews, and The Daily Caller, while his fiction is included in several anthologies from independent presses. A graduate of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich., he currently resides in the palm of Michigan’s mitten. Most days you’ll find him at home, working out in his basement gym, cooking, and doting on his cat. You can follow him on X, Criticless, and YouTube at @BookstorThor
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Bunny With A Keyboard

When they have to lie, it proves they have nothing true to use against him.

Vallor

Do eet. That would be almost like suing the British Government! Now that the actual brits are a declining population, any payout may start to fall on the immigrant community.

HA, who am I kidding, most immigrants in the UK (legal and illegal) are on welfare and living in council housing or a hotel with the few productive brits footing the bill.

CleatusDefeatus

My absolute favorite western is on right now: Rio Bravo.

I’m sure I seem: less-than:

championing the things I do.

But, truly watch some of these great movies. You will not be disappointed.

TTTRRRUUUTTTHHH

I hope he settles for getting the rights to Doctor Who so we can Make Doctor Who Great Again. It’d also be absolutely hysterical to watch people lose their minds because of Who now being owned by an American, and also from all these commies going over the edge from the ultimate bout of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Mr0303

As somebody who lives in the UK – please do. Destroy the BBC.

LumberJackAhz

So this technically isn’t violating the 1st Amendment since Video doesn’t count as Speech no matter what Criminal Politicians say. However it may still be a violation since this counts as “Freedom of the Press”.
However Trump DID violate the 1st Amendment by suing others over words in the past.
Defamation, Slander, Liable, etc are violating the 1st Amendment since it says “Congress Shall Make No Laws…..”.
If you are actually on the Right then you will be against ANYONE using Unconstitutional Laws regardless of who it is, or against. The Right is about Freedom, the Left is about Control. You can’t have “Free Speech” with limitations on Speech……….

Last edited 5 months ago by LumberJackAhz
Vallor

This is going to be a tough hill to trudge up, considering it is a US citizen (even if he is head of state) suing in international court to assert “rights” that may or may not exist in the same, enforceable method we have in the US.

A “Charter of Human Rights” isn’t a Constitution and the state can modify it when, and how, they like.

I’m not saying it is impossible, but it will be much harder than suing a domestic broadcaster like ABC.

James Eadon

“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.”
― George Orwell, 1984
Orwell worked for the BBC, and, in 1984, he describes how they operate. (The Ministry Of Truth). In general, this is true of the entire, controlled, Legacy Media. Heaven help us when they find a way of destroying Independent Journalists on Social Media.