Why has US President Donald Trump threatened to sue BBC? Explained in 10 points

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, 11 November, that he has an “obligation” to sue the BBC over a Panorama documentary that misrepresented his 6 January 2021 speech.

“Well, I think I have an obligation to do it,” Donald Trump told Fox News.

His legal team has accused the BBC of misleadingly editing his speech in a way that implied an explicit call to violence. Trump's lawyers labelled the edit “false, defamatory, malicious, disparaging, and inflammatory.”

Donald Trump’s threat to file a $1 billion lawsuit against the BBC has raised questions about the British broadcaster’s future - though legal experts say it could amount to little more than a bluff.

Here's what we know so far

— The controversy stems from a documentary aired as part of the long-running BBC documentary series Panorama, which aired in October 2024, ahead of the US Presidential elections.

— Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, accused the BBC of altering the meaning of the speech that Trump gave on the day of the US Capitol riot, implying an explicit call for violence.

— The documentary at the centre of the row, Trump: A Second Chance?, has since been removed from the BBC’s online platforms.

— The edited clip showed Trump saying: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you and we fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

— In reality, Trump said: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.” Fifty-four minutes later, he then told his supporters to “fight like hell,” according to CNN.

— As the legal pressure started mounting, the BBC Chair, Samir Shah, issued an apology for the clip, calling it an “error of judgement” over how the president's speech was edited. He also accepted that the edited speech gave “the impression of a direct call for violent action.”

— Though the documentary was aired last year, the issue resurfaced after The Telegraph last week published a leaked memo to the BBC board from Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the broadcaster’s editorial standards committee.

— In Prescott's memo, he openly criticised the misleading edit of Trump's speech in the documentary, along with a long list of other issues.

— As a result of escalating tensions, BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, as well as the chief executive officer of BBC News, Deborah Turness, resigned on Sunday.

— According to CNN, Trump has asked the BBC to pull down the documentary and issue an apology. He also wants appropriate compensation for the alleged harm caused to his image.