Trump says he has 'obligation' to sue BBC over speech edit

President Donald Trump has said he has a "right" to sue the BBC because a portion of his speech was edited in a Panorama documentary. He claimed his 6 January 2021 address had been "butchered" and that the edit had "defrauded" viewers.

This is the first time Trump has publicly discussed the matter since his lawyers sent the BBC a legal letter demanding the company issues a retraction, apologises, and compensates him.

'We are reviewing the letter and will respond promptly in due course,' a BBC spokesperson said.

Samir Shah, the BBC's chair, has previously apologised for an "error of judgement" over the edit.

Trump's Remarks

When asked on Fox News' The Ingraham Angle on Tuesday evening if he would go forward with the lawsuit, the president answered: 'Well, I guess I must, because they defrauded the public, and they've confirmed it.'

'They really modified my January 6 speech, which was a beautiful speech, but they made it sound more ominous. And they actually changed it. What they did was rather incredible. Well, I think I have the right to do it because you can't let people... you can’t encourage people to do that.'

The Fox News interview was taped on Monday, but the section concerning the BBC was not released until late on Tuesday evening in the United States.

On Sunday, Trump's lawyers sent the BBC a letter. It demands a 'full and fair retraction' of the film, an apology, and for the BBC to 'appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused'. The corporation has been given a deadline of 22:00 GMT on Friday (17:00 EST) to respond.

BBC News has contacted the BBC for comment on the president's latest remarks.

The Panorama Edit

The BBC edit appeared in a Panorama documentary that aired days before the US presidential election in November 2024, but it only sparked significant public attention last week after a leaked internal BBC memo was published by The Daily Telegraph.

In the memo, a former independent adviser to the BBC's editorial standards committee expressed doubt that a portion of the speech had been edited in a way that implied the president explicitly encouraged the January 2021 riot.

In the original speech, Trump said: 'We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to celebrate our brave senators, congressmen, and women.'

However, two sections of the speech, more than 50 minutes apart, were spliced together. He was shown saying: 'We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you... And we fight. We fight like hell.'

BBC and Political Fallout

The fallout has led to intense pressure on Tim Davie, the BBC's director-general, and head of news Deborah Turness. Both senior executives have retaliated against critics who claim the episode has raised concerns about impartiality at the BBC.

'We've made some mistakes that have cost us, but we'll fight,' Davie said during an internal all-staff meeting on Tuesday. 'This story will not be defined by our enemies, it's our story.'

The BBC is going through 'difficult times', he said, but it 'does good work, and that speaks louder than any newspaper or any weaponisation.'

During their address to employees on Tuesday, neither Davie nor the BBC chair mentioned Trump's legal threat.

'This was a matter for the BBC,' Downing Street said. 'It is obviously not for the government to comment on any pending legal issues,' the prime minister's official spokesperson added.

The row comes at a difficult time for the BBC, with its royal charter—which underpins its governance and funding arrangements—set to expire at the end of 2027. The terms of its renewal will be overseen by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.

Negotiations, she told the Commons, must 'renew its mission for the modern age' and guarantee a 'fully accountable organisation.'

'There is a fundamental difference between raising serious questions over editorial standards and members of this House launching a sustained attack on the institution itself,' Nandy continued. 'The BBC is not merely a broadcaster; it is an international body that belongs to us all.'

The culture select committee is expected to hear from senior BBC figures in the coming weeks, including Shah and board members Sir Robbie Gibb and Caroline Thomson. Michael Prescott, the former editorial standards consultant who wrote the leaked memo, will also be permitted to testify.

Elsewhere, an internal Reform UK email seen by BBC News confirmed that the party would cease co-operation with a documentary ordered by the broadcaster about the party's rise in the UK. According to the email, the production team had 'unprecedented access' to senior figures, but that they should now be refused permission to film any footage relating to the Trump controversy.