Trump Says He Has an “Obligation” to Sue the BBC Over January 6 Speech Edit
US President Donald Trump says he feels he has an “obligation” to sue the BBC for $1bn over an edited clip of his January 6th, 2021 speech, accusing the broadcaster of “defrauding the public” and making a “beautiful” address sound “radical.”
Speaking on Fox News, Trump claimed his words were “butchered” in a Panorama documentary aired just before the 2024 US election. “They actually changed my January 6 speech, which was a beautiful speech, which was a very calming speech, and they made it sound radical,” he said. “And they actually changed it. What they did was rather incredible.”
Trump’s lawyers sent the BBC a letter demanding a “full and fair retraction,” a public apology, and payments to “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused.” The broadcaster has until 22:00 GMT on Friday to respond, or Trump says he will file a defamation suit for no less than $1bn.
The dispute centres on a section of Trump’s 2021 address in Washington, where he told supporters: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.” In the Panorama edit, two parts of the speech roughly 50 minutes apart were spliced together, showing him saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.” Critics said the edit made it appear he was urging violence.
The controversy has triggered a major crisis at the BBC. Both Director General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness resigned after the issue came to light through a leaked internal memo that warned the edit could mislead viewers. BBC chair Samir Shah has apologised for an “error of judgement,” though the corporation says it is still “reviewing the letter” from Trump’s legal team.
Trump said in his Fox interview, “I guess I have to [sue], you know, why not, because they defrauded the public, and they've admitted it.” He added: “Well, I think I have an obligation to do it, because you can't get people, you can't allow people to do that.”
The fallout comes at a sensitive time for the BBC, with its royal charter due to expire in 2027. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has promised a review to “renew its mission for the modern age,” while warning MPs to stop “launching a sustained attack on the institution itself.”
Legal experts say Trump may face an uphill battle in the US courts, where public figures must prove not just falsity but “reckless disregard of falsity” to win a defamation case. Cambridge law professor David Erdos said this “sets an incredibly high bar.” However, reputation lawyer Emma Thompson said that, technically, “if you slice a video and conflate two comments in order to drive a narrative, that’s exactly what libel is.”
The president has made similar threats before — and won large settlements. CBS News and ABC News each paid millions over disputed broadcasts last year, though his $15bn case against The New York Times is still ongoing.
For now, the BBC faces another test of trust just as it seeks to repair its image. As one senior source inside the corporation put it this week, “We have made some mistakes that have cost us, but we need to fight.”
