President Donald Trump has initiated a massive legal action against the BBC, seeking $10 billion in damages through a federal court in Florida.
The lawsuit, filed on December 15, 2025, allocates $5 billion for defamation and another $5 billion for alleged breaches of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The litigation is a response to a Panorama documentary titled “Trump: A Second Chance?”, which was broadcast in the United Kingdom shortly before the 2024 presidential election.
The President’s legal team contends that the broadcaster intentionally manipulated footage from his January 6, 2021, speech by merging two distinct statements to suggest he had directly incited violence at the Capitol. The complaint argues that by omitting his remarks regarding peaceful protest, the BBC engaged in a “malicious” attempt to influence the election outcome.
While the BBC has pledged to fight the case and the UK government continues to support the broadcaster’s independence, the controversy has already led to the resignations of Director-General Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness following internal criticisms of the documentary’s editorial standards.
