Trump Announces Legal Action Against BBC for Panorama Editing

Sat Nov 15 2025 06:30:04 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Donald Trump has confirmed plans to sue the BBC after claiming an edited segment of his speech gave a misleading impression of his remarks regarding January 6. The legal battle could amount to billions.

US President Donald Trump has stated he will pursue legal action against the BBC over the editing of a speech featured in Panorama, which he claims misrepresented his words. Trump's lawyers previously threatened a lawsuit for $1 billion unless the BBC issued a retraction and apology. The BBC has acknowledged the editing mistake but plans to contest any financial compensation. Following the controversy, significant organizational changes within the BBC leadership occurred.

US President Donald Trump has said he still intends to take legal action against the BBC over how his speech was edited by Panorama.

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Friday evening, Trump stated: We'll sue them for anywhere between a billion and $5bn probably sometime next week.

He mentioned discussing the issue with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over the weekend. The BBC stated that the edit of the 6 January 2021 speech had given the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.

While the BBC has apologized for the editing, it announced that it will not provide financial compensation.

Earlier this week, Trump's legal team threatened to file a lawsuit for $1 billion in damages unless the corporation responded with a retraction, an apology, and compensation by a specified deadline. The BBC responded before the deadline.

The fallout from this issue included the resignation of BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness earlier in the week.

As of now, no formal legal action appears to have been filed, as searches of public court records show no cases resulting from this dispute have been logged so far. Federal and state courts in Florida, where any potential suit would likely be filed, are closed for the weekend.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly.