A safety guard stands guard exterior BBC Broadcasting Home after Director Normal of BBC Tim Davie and Chief Government of BBC Information Deborah Turness resigned following accusations of bias on the British broadcaster, together with in the best way it edited a speech by U.S. President Donald Trump, in London, Britain, November 11, 2025.
Hannah Mckay | Reuters
President Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit in opposition to the BBC in Miami federal courtroom on Monday evening, searching for $10 billion in damages.
The civil criticism accuses the British Broadcasting Company of manufacturing a “false, defamatory, misleading, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump” in a Panorama documentary aired one week earlier than the 2024 election.
Trump’s swimsuit alleges the documentary was produced as a part of “a brazen try to intervene in and affect the Election’s end result to President Trump’s detriment.”
The swimsuit notes that the documentary, titled “Trump: A Second Likelihood,” was edited to make it seem that in his Jan. 6, 2021, speech exterior the White Home, Trump had explicitly urged his supporters to assault the U.S. Capitol.
“The Panorama Documentary falsely depicted President Trump telling supporters: ‘We’ll stroll all the way down to the Capitol and I will be there with you. And we combat. We combat like hell and for those who do not combat like hell, you are not going to have a rustic anymore,’ ” the swimsuit says. “President Trump by no means uttered this sequence of phrases.”
In reality, the swimsuit says, the sentence containing the phrases “And we combat” was uttered by Trump practically 55 minutes after he mentioned the phrases “I will be there with you.”
BBC Chair Samir Shah just lately apologized for an “error of judgment” over the edit, and the broadcaster’s director common and head of reports each resigned.
CNBC has requested remark from the BBC on Trump’s swimsuit, which seeks $5 billion in damages for every of its two counts: defamation, and violation of Florida’s Misleading and Unfair Commerce Practices Act.
The BBC apologized to Trump on Nov. 13 and promised to not air the documentary once more or present it on any of its platforms.
“Whereas the BBC sincerely regrets the way by which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there’s a foundation for a defamation declare,” the broadcaster mentioned in an announcement on Nov. 13.
A spokesman for Trump’s authorized staff, in an announcement, mentioned, “The previously revered and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by deliberately, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen try to intervene within the 2024 Presidential Election.”
“The BBC has an extended sample of deceiving its viewers in protection of President Trump, all in service of its personal leftist political agenda,” the spokesman mentioned. “President Trump’s powerhouse lawsuit is holding the BBC accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference simply as he has held different pretend information mainstream media liable for their wrongdoing.”
Trump earlier Monday informed reporters on the White Home that the lawsuit would quickly be filed.
“In a short time, you may be seeing I am suing the BBC for placing phrases in my mouth,” Trump mentioned. “Actually, they put phrases in my mouth. They’d me saying issues that I by no means mentioned popping out.”
The swimsuit alleges that “considerations concerning the Panorama Documentary had been raised internally earlier than its dissemination, however the BBC ignored these considerations and didn’t take corrective motion.”
The criticism additionally mentioned the documentary “is a part of the BBC’s longstanding sample of manipulating President Trump’s speeches and presenting content material in a deceptive method as a way to defame him, together with fabricating requires violence that he by no means made.”
The swimsuit is the newest in a collection of defamation complaints that the notoriously litigious president has filed in opposition to media shops.
Trump filed a $15 billion lawsuit in opposition to The New York Instances in September, accusing the newspaper of being a “mouthpiece” for the Democratic Get together.
In July, Trump filed a lawsuit searching for $10 billion in damages from media baron Rupert Murdoch and the writer of The Wall Avenue Journal over that newspaper’s report that Trump despatched his then-friend Jeffrey Epstein a “bawdy” letter for Epstein’s fiftieth birthday.
Trump denies sending or authoring that letter, which was among the many paperwork that the infamous intercourse offender Epstein’s property has since turned over to a congressional committee.
Trump sued CBS for $20 billion in October 2024 over what he alleged was misleading modifying of an interview that his then-election opponent Kamala Harris gave to “60 Minutes.”
CBS’ guardian, Paramount Skydance, in July agreed to pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit, with the cash allotted to Trump’s future presidential library. The fee got here weeks earlier than the Federal Communications Fee, which is led by a Trump appointee, permitted Paramount’s plan for an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media.
ABC in December 2024 agreed to pay $15 million towards Trump’s library to settle a defamation lawsuit associated to anchor George Stephanopoulos inaccurately describing the civil jury verdict in a lawsuit in opposition to Trump by the author E. Jean Carroll.
