BBC Apologizes for Trump Speech Edit as He Threatens a $5 Billion Suit

President Trump said Friday he will sue the BBC for between $1 billion and $5 billion over a misleading edit of his Jan. 6, 2021, speech, hours after the British broadcaster apologized but declined to offer a financial settlement, CBS News, NBC News and NPR reported.

“We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, according to CBS News. “They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth,” he said, NBC News reported. His lawyers had set a Friday deadline for the BBC to retract the program, apologize and compensate him, NBC News said.

The dispute is over a documentary in the BBC’s “Panorama” series that was broadcast shortly before the 2024 presidential election. NPR reported that it spliced together remarks made nearly an hour apart, creating the impression of one continuous call to “fight like hell” and march to the Capitol. NBC News said the edit joined the line to walk to the Capitol with the “We fight” line, which came more than 50 minutes later.

On Thursday the BBC said its chair, Samir Shah, had sent a personal letter to the White House saying he and the corporation “are sorry for the edit,” CBS News reported, and NPR said Shah told the White House the documentary would not be broadcast again. The BBC said it “sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited” but “strongly disagree[s]” that there is a basis for a defamation claim, CBS reported. NPR reported that the BBC acknowledged the edit “unintentionally created the impression” of a single continuous section.

Legal experts told NPR that the BBC’s refusal to pay is likely because the documentary did not air extensively in the United States, so Mr. Trump would have to prove that Americans watched it and that it damaged his reputation. PBS NewsHour also noted that legal experts have pointed out the documentary was not shown in the United States.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers had alleged in a letter that the program caused him “overwhelming financial and reputational harm,” CBS News and PBS reported. NPR said the lawyers’ first letter had suggested he was willing to file a billion-dollar lawsuit.

The affair has already cost the BBC two leaders. NBC News and NPR reported that its director-general and its head of news both resigned after the edit came to light.

NPR reported that Mr. Trump also said he planned to call Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the weekend, and that the government has defended the BBC in Parliament.