Trump threatens BBC with lawsuit up to $5 billion over edited speech, despite apology

US president says he plans to raise issue with Starmer; firestorm has prompted resignations of British public broadcaster’s director-general and news chief

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he would sue the BBC for up to $5 billion after the British broadcaster apologized for a misleading edit of one of his speeches, but said it would not pay damages.

“We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion and five billion dollars, probably some time next week. I think I have to do it. They’ve even admitted that they cheated,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Trump’s lawyers sent the BBC a letter Monday accusing it of defaming the president with the video of the speech before the 2021 US Capitol riot and giving it until Friday to apologize and pay compensation.

“The people of the UK are very angry about what happened, as you can imagine, because it shows the BBC is fake news,” Trump said.

He added that he plans to raise the BBC issue with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has backed the broadcaster’s independence while avoiding taking sides against Trump.

“I’m going to call him over the weekend. He actually put a call in to me. He’s very embarrassed,” Trump said.

On Monday, the BBC apologized for giving the impression in a documentary aired last year that Trump had directly urged “violent action” just before the assault on the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.

The firestorm over the video edit has led the BBC director-general and the organization’s top news executive to resign.

The BBC said Thursday that its chairman Samir Shah had sent “a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president’s speech.”

However, it added: “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

The BBC had been under mounting pressure after an internal report by a former standards adviser was leaked to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The report cited failings in the British public broadcaster’s coverage of the speech made by Trump and trans issues. It additionally criticized coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, including that BBC Arabic’s story selection and editing largely omitted pieces criticizing the terror group or highlighting the suffering of Israelis, including the hostages.