US President Donald Trump says he intends to sue the BBC for between $1 billion and $5 billion “probably sometime next week” despite the broadcaster’s apology to him over a documentary Trump’s legal professionals described as defamatory.
“I think I have to do it,” Trump informed reporters. “They’ve even admitted that they cheated … They cheated, they changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
On Thursday, the BBC apologized to Trump over an enhancing blunder in an October 2024 documentary, titled “Trump: A Second Chance?,” saying that it “sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited.”
Speaking to UK community GB News, Trump acknowledged the apology he acquired from the BBC, saying “they wrote me a nice letter.”
“’We apologize,’ but when you say it’s unintentional, I guess if it’s unintentional, you don’t apologize,” he added.
The president informed GB News he shouldn’t be seeking to get into lawsuits however painted the transfer as important to stop related mishaps in the future.
“This was so egregious,” he stated, “If you don’t do it, you don’t stop it from happening again with other people… I’d like to find out why they did it.”
In the BBC’s edit, on an version of the TV present Panorama, completely different elements of Trump’s speech from the day of the January 6 storming of the US Capitol have been spliced collectively, creating the impression Trump informed the crowd he would stroll with them to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”
He informed GB News: “I made a beautiful statement, and they made it into a not beautiful statement.”
Trump beforehand threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion until it retracted the documentary and apologized for what his legal professionals have described as “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” earlier than a deadline of 5 p.m. ET Friday.
Trump has beforehand stated he desires the BBC to “appropriately compensate” him for the alleged hurt prompted.
A spokesperson for the BBC stated Thursday that it had no plans to rebroadcast the documentary on any BBC platforms, however the broadcaster firmly rejected Trump’s defamation declare, saying “we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”
NCS’s Laura Sharman contributed to this report.