Donald Trump has said he will sue the BBC for between $1bn and $5bn over the editing of his speech on Panorama.

The US president confirmed he would be taking legal action against the broadcaster while on Air Force One overnight on Saturday.

“We’ll sue them. We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion (£792m) and five billion dollars (£3.79bn), probably sometime next week,” he told reporters.

“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.”

Mr Trump then told reporters he would discuss the matter with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over the weekend, and claimed “the people of the UK are very angry about what happened… because it shows the BBC is fake news”.

Separately, Mr Trump told GB News: “I’m not looking to get into lawsuits, but I think I have 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.”

The Daily Telegraph reported earlier this month that an internal memo raised concerns about the BBC’s editing of a speech made by Mr Trump on 6 January 2021, just before a mob rioted at the US Capitol building, on the news programme.

The concerns regard clips spliced together from sections of the president’s speech to make it appear he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell” in the documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election.

Following a backlash, both BBC director-general Tim Davie and BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness resigned from their roles.

‘No basis for defamation claim’

On Thursday, the broadcaster officially apologised to the president and added that it was an “error of judgement” and the programme will “not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms”.

A spokesperson said that “the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited,” but they also added that “we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim”.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump’s lawyers threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn unless it apologised, retracted the clip, and compensated him.

Legal challenges

But legal experts have said that Mr Trump would face challenges taking the case to court in the UK or the US.

The deadline to bring the case to UK courts, where defamation damages rarely exceed £100,000 ($132,000), has already expired because the documentary aired in October 2024, which is more than one year.

Also because the documentary was not shown in the US, it would be hard to show that Americans thought less of the president because of a programme they could not watch.

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Newsnight allegations

The BBC has said it was looking into fresh allegations, published in The Telegraph, that its Newsnight show also selectively edited footage of the same speech in a report broadcast in June 2022.

A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC holds itself to the highest editorial standards. This matter has been brought to our attention and we are now looking into it.”

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has said she is ready to mend relations with Donald Trump after a high-profile row between the pair.

The former MAGA ally had said the US president was “coming after me hard” to prevent her efforts to release more files about Jeffrey Epstein.

But writing on X on Sunday, she said forgiveness was a “major part” of her Christian faith.

“I’m here to show how it’s possible to settle our differences and move forward as Americans,” she wrote. “That’s why I’m always willing to go on shows with different viewpoints.

“I truly believe in forgiveness and I am open to moving forward with the President.”

A day earlier, Ms Greene claimed she was facing threats after a barrage of personal criticism from Mr Trump.

She said she’d received warnings about her safety and that “a hotbed of threats” were “being fuelled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world”.

“As a woman, I take threats from men seriously,” Ms Greene added.

“I now have a small understanding of the fear and pressure the women, who are victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal, must feel.”

The congresswoman said Mr Trump’s “aggression against me” – considering she was a staunch supporter of his policies – was “completely shocking to everyone”.

Read more:
Who is MAGA ally Marjorie Taylor Greene?
Trump goes to war with the BBC

The fight began when a petition to vote on the full release of the Epstein files received enough signatures – including Ms Greene’s – to bring it to a vote in the House of Representatives.

Mr Trump rescinded his support for Ms Greene, dubbed her a “RINO” (Republican In Name Only), and suggested he could support a challenge against her.

Ms Greene claimed text messages she sent to the president about the Epstein files had “sent him over the edge”.

She wrote on social media: “Of course he’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next week’s vote to release the Epstein files.”

High-profile figures, including Mr Trump, have been referenced in some of the documents.

The White House has said the “selectively leaked emails” were an attempt to “create a fake narrative to smear President Trump”, who has consistently denied any involvement or knowledge about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

Mr Trump has called the Epstein files a “hoax” created by the Democrats to “deflect” from the US government shutdown.

Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.

They say power is measured by the battles you choose to fight. This week Donald Trump chose two.

One was an international clash with the BBC, the other, a messy family drama in his own backyard.

His lawyers had threatened to sue the BBC for manipulating a speech he gave on 6 January 2021, by editing two different parts together to imply he incited violence.

Read more: Three experts on why Trump might struggle to win BBC lawsuit

The corporation apologised but when it refused to meet his $1bn demand for compensation, he upped it to “between $1bn and $5bn”.

Donald Trump has won out-of-court settlements from two US networks, but legal analysts are sceptical about his chances of a courtroom victory.

In the UK, the deadline for defamation claims has passed, and in Florida, he will have to prove enough people saw it to cause him reputational harm.

The BBC is protected by the First Amendment of the US constitution, and it is notoriously difficult to demonstrate malicious intent against a public figure.

But for Trump, this may be less about winning a case and more about the optics – reinforcing his claims of “fake news”.

On the other front is Marjorie Taylor Greene, once the most loyal of allies, even touted as a potential running mate.

He publicly withdrew his endorsement of her on Truth Social, branding her “wacky Marjorie” and “a ranting lunatic”.

Read more: What do Epstein documents say about Trump, Andrew and Mandelson?

The congresswoman hit back, claiming texts she had sent him about Jeffrey Epstein had “sent him over the edge”.

The split had been brewing, with Greene having aligned with Democrats to force a vote on the release of all Epstein files.

But the clash is not just personal, it’s ideological, a signal that he’s now more comfortable with less disruptive elements, even within his own base.

With the BBC, he is wielding the legal threat to demand respect from one of the world’s most respected news institutions.

With Taylor Greene, he is showing that he can swiftly withdraw support in a bid to enforce discipline within his camp.

Both battles come with risk. Suing the BBC could bring fresh scrutiny over his rhetoric on 6 January 2021.

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Disowning someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene could alienate the section of the MAGA base that rallied around her firebrand activism.

But a high-profile battle with the BBC amplifies his narrative of persecution.

And the ditching of a foot-soldier shows who wields the power when it comes to political survival.