Will take legal action against BBC: Trump

US President Donald Trump has declared that he intends to proceed with legal action against the BBC despite the British public service broadcaster apologising to him for the way his speech was edited for one of its news documentaries aired last year.

“We’ll sue them. We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion and 5 billion dollars, probably sometime next week,” Trump said on Saturday. “We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated. Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth,” he said.

The row follows an intense period for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), resulting in the resignation of top officials and an apology for an “error of judgment” from its Indian-origin chair, Samir Shah. On Thursday, the BBC said the edit of Trump’s January 6, 2021, speech had unintentionally given “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action” and said it would not be broadcast again.

While it has apologised to the American President, the BBC has ruled out paying any financial compensation. Trump had threatened to sue the broadcaster for $1 billion in damages unless the corporation issued a retraction, apology and paid him compensation. However, he has now said he intends to proceed with the legal action despite the apology.

In an interview, Trump said while he was not looking to get into lawsuits, he felt he had an “obligation to do it”. “This was so egregious. If you don’t do it, you don’t stop it from happening again with other people,” he said.