Great Britain Trump sues BBC - broadcaster wants to fight back
US President Donald Trump is suing the world-famous BBC for a total of ten billion dollars, once again taking action against media he dislikes.
16.12.2025, 13:50
SDA
The Republican's lawyers are accusing the broadcaster of having portrayed the US president in a "false and defamatory" way in a program. The BBC had "deliberately and maliciously" attempted to mislead its viewers worldwide.
The BBC acknowledged the complaint. "As we have previously made clear, we will defend ourselves in this case," the broadcaster announced at midday. No further comment will be made on the ongoing legal proceedings.
The background to the lawsuit is a dispute over the edited version of a Trump speech from January 6, 2021, which the broadcaster had used for the program "Panorama". It was broadcast shortly before the presidential election in November 2024, in which Trump defeated Democrat Kamala Harris.
The claim sum of ten billion dollars (around 8.5 billion euros) results from two counts, each of which seeks five billion dollars. These are defamation and violation of trade practices. The specific accusation is that the BBC publicly damaged Trump's reputation and also damaged him economically.
Trump had already announced his lawsuit a month ago; until then, the amount had been between one and five billion dollars. The broadcaster's annual revenue, which is made up of license fees and commercial income, amounted to 5.9 billion pounds (around 6.7 billion euros) in the last financial year.
What happened?
For its broadcast, the BBC had edited together passages from different parts of Trump's speech to his supporters at the time. On that day in January, there had been a violent storming of the Capitol in the US capital Washington, where the election victory of Trump's then opponent, Democrat Joe Biden, was to be officially confirmed.
In his speech, Trump - who had been voted out of office after his first term (2017-2021) but was still in office - repeated the repeatedly refuted claim that he had been cheated out of his election victory. The edited version makes his appearance seem more aggressive and demanding. After the speech, Trump's supporters stormed the seat of parliament.
The Republican accused the renowned broadcaster of a "false, defamatory, misleading, derogatory, inflammatory and malicious" presentation. The broadcaster had interfered in the US presidential election and wanted to influence the outcome to its disadvantage. The current complaint states that the BBC omitted an important part of his speech in order to deliberately place the statements shown in the wrong context.
Following Trump's criticism at the time, the BBC acknowledged its mistakes and apologized to Trump. The impression was unintentionally created that it was a coherent section of the speech. This could make it appear as if Trump had directly called for violence. The case is also a major reason for the resignation of the broadcaster's boss Tim Davie and journalist Deborah Turness, who is responsible for the news business.
BBC: No basis for defamation suit
In a letter, Trump's legal team threatened the BBC with legal action despite its apology if the broadcaster did not withdraw the program and pay compensation. The BBC did state that the program would no longer be broadcast. However, the broadcaster did not want to pay compensation. The media company saw no basis for a libel suit.
Trump's fight against the media
This is not the first time that the US President has taken action against media he dislikes. Since the start of his second term in office in January, he has not only toughened his tone towards journalists, but has also repeatedly resorted to legal means and attempted to discredit or completely prevent reporting on him and his administration.
Trump repeatedly refers to false news ("fake news") that he believes renowned media outlets are spreading. He also frequently insults journalists when they ask him questions that he does not like.
One of Trump's tools is to sue media companies - as in the case of the US television stations CBS and ABC. In both cases, the parties agreed on a settlement worth millions without going to trial.
Critics see Trump's lawsuits as targeted attempts at intimidation and an attack on the freedom of the press. Trump also sued the New York Times and took on the powerful media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
