BBC 'sincerely regrets' editing of Trump speech but ignores allegation Trump threatens $1 billion lawsuit
12 November 2025, UK: BBC Headquarters in central London. BBC director-general Tim Davie resigned on Sunday over an edit to Donald Trump's 2021 speech. PHOTO: Tayfun Salci / Zuma Press / Profimedia
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) sent a message to US President Donald Trump on Thursday in which he personally apologized, but said there was no legal basis for him to sue the public television station in Great Britain over the documentary that the Republican's lawyers described as defamatory, Reuters reports.
The documentary, broadcast on the BBC's Panorama news program just ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, stitched together three parts of Trump's speech on January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol. The editing of the speech created the impression that Trump was inciting violence.
“While the BBC sincerely regrets the way the video has been edited, we do not at all agree that there are grounds for defamation action,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
On Sunday, the US leader's lawyers threatened to sue the BBC for up to $1 billion in damages unless it retracts the documentary, apologizes to the president and compensates him for “financial and reputational harm”.
Stating that the defamation suit filed by Trump is baseless, the BBC has signaled, in fact, that the station considers his request for financial compensation to be equally baseless, notes Reuters. But the broadcaster did not directly address Trump's financial request.
In a statement, the BBC said the station's chairman, Samir Shah, sent “a personal letter to the White House on Thursday stating that he and the corporation regret the editing”. Earlier in the week, Shah apologized before a British parliamentary oversight committee and said the editing was “an error of judgement”.
In its statement on Thursday, the BBC added that it had no plans to rebroadcast the documentary on any of its platforms.
Earlier in the day, the BBC announced that it was investigating new allegations, published in the British newspaper The Telegraph, regarding the editing of the same speech in another program of the station, “Newsnight”.
The BBC is facing its worst crisis in decades after two chief executives resigned following allegations of bias, including over the editing of Trump's speech. The allegations came to light because of a leaked report by one of the BBC's standards officials.
Founded in 1922 and funded largely by license fees paid by Britons who watch television, the BBC has no permanent director while the government considers how the corporation should be funded in the future.
The British broadcaster is a vital tool of the UK's “soft power” globally and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that he believed in a “strong and independent” BBC.
