BBC vows to defend itself in $10bn Donald Trump lawsuit

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Tue 16 Dec 2025 05.51 EST
First published on Tue 16 Dec 2025 03.46 EST


The BBC has vowed to defend itself against the $10bn lawsuit that the US president, Donald Trump filed against it. In a complaint filed on Monday evening, Trump sought $5bn in damages each on two counts, alleging that the BBC defamed him, and that it violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Trump alleged the broadcaster “intentionally, maliciously and deceptively” edited the 6 January speech he gave before the attack on the US Capitol. The Panorama edit, which was broadcast just over a year ago and took sections of his speech almost an hour apart, suggested Trump told the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.”

In a short statement on Tuesday, a BBC spokesperson said: “As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.” Stephen Kinnock, a health minister, said it was “right that the BBC stand firm” against Trump’s claims of defamation and that he hoped “they will continue to do so”.

“I think they have apologised for one or two of the mistakes that were made in that Panorama programme, but they’ve also been very clear that there is no case to answer in terms of Mr Trump’s accusations on the broader point about libel or defamation,” Kinnock told Sky News. “The government is a massive supporter of the BBC. The Labour party will always stand up for the BBC as a vitally important institution.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/dec/16/bbc-bosses-right-to-stick-by-their-guns-against-trump-says-minister

[GreenWave]

1. I guess the Blue state/Blue city taxpayers have to pay his costs.

[marble falls]

2. No they won't. They'll just lay some millions on him to make him go away and take a tax write off.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. "Tax write off"? I don't think you understand the BBC.

It is funded by a TV licence fee, which each household with a TV set should be paying (various RWers try not to, since they hate the BBC). It's not taxed. It's non-profit. This is an expense (paying the lawyers, even if the BBC wins - I don't expect costs would ever be awarded, or successfully collected, against Trump) which will fall on the licence payers - in practice, it will cut future programme-making budgets (I can't see the government saying "put the licence fee up a bit more, because Trump wasted our time in court" ).

[Miguelito Loveless]

7. He is in essence suing the British government

since the BBC is a government agency.

[mwooldri]

12. The BBC is funded by the British public.

Via the TV licence. The BBC gets $5 billion a year to fund what it does. That income is tax free. The BBC does make $3 billion a year from its commercial activities.

If licence fee money is used to pay off Trump, there wouldn't be a tax write off to be had as it's tax free money to begin with.

Since the programme involved (Newsnight) is a UK show, for UK consumption, licence fee money would be 100% involved here.

There is no tax write off to be had.

[Ray Bruns]

3. I feel slighted. Am I the only one who hasn't been sued by Trump?

[Jerry2144]

4. BBC should push for full discovery

Demand all his communications and those of his team that show he and his team planned there attack and approved it

[RockCreek]

5. This is how to stop these innumerable crazy lawsuits

and threats of lawsuits.
And show where the real cover-up is.

[ananda]

10. Yes. That appears to be the key in these lawsuits.

Fight!

[Martin68]

8. I predict Trump will prevail, and the BBC will be fined 1 pence.

Last edited Tue Dec 16, 2025, 09:38 PM - Edit history (1)

The BBC will not apologize.

[FakeNoose]

9. Once again, Chump is stupid and the courts should make him pay

He should have sued them for $5.00 - that's right FIVE DOLLARS - and he probably would have won the lawsuit. But of course they're going to fight this stupid thing for $5 billion. Anyone would fight this, and I'm sure the BBC lawyers will win the case.

But that's not the point, Chump is just looking for REVENGE and HEADLINES, in that order. He already has the revenge and the headlines because now BBC has to pay lawyers to defend them in court.

It's absurd the way Chump gets away with this - using the court systems in the US and Britain - and it costs him practically nothing. Chump already has a hundred lawyers on his (personal) payroll, plus the legal staffers who work for him in the White House also get pulled into these things, even though they aren't supposed to.

If he wanted an apology and nothing else, Chump could have sued BBC for $5.00 and an apology, and they would have done it. The court doesn't admonish someone who wins their case, no matter how useless the lawsuit is.

:

[SunSeeker]

11. This federal lawsuit is venued in Miami. The same city that just voted for a Democratic mayor.

Hopefully the Miami jury will give Trump nothing...if it even gets that far. Some aggressive discovery on the BBC's part should shut this whole thing down well before then.