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Following on from his threat, US President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit in the USA, claiming defamation and violations for trade practices.
The claim has been filed against the BBC, and relates to their Panorama programme. The programme ran a documentary called ‘Trump: A Second Chance’, which in clips of Trump’s 2021 speech were included, made on the same day supporters stormed the US Capitol. This programme was aired in November 2025.
The clips included were edited in a way in which it looks as if Trump had said he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”.
Trump claims that the BBC portrayed him in a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious” manner. The claim seeks no less than $5 billion in damages for the defamation lawsuit, and a further $5 billion for the trade law violations.
In response to the claims, the BBC have confirmed that they will be seeking to defend the action. There has however already been some impact on the organisation, as the matter escalated following a memo leak from within the BBC, questioning the edit. This led to resignations and apologies issued.
As the suit has been filed in the USA, the US laws on defamation are to be considered. Trump was unable to go through the UK courts for this, as the 1-year deadline to file a claim had passed. Therefore, the first question for the Court will be if it has jurisdiction over the matter, given the BBC programme was broadcast in the UK. It will be Trump’s responsibility to argue that people within the USA would have viewed the programme, and this had a significant impact on his reputation. This may be difficult given that the programme would need to be viewed through a subscription service or through the use of a VPN.
In addition, in line with US defamation laws, Trump would need to evidence actual malice, namely that the BBC knew the truth, deliberately ignored it and deliberately spread false information. The bar for this type of argument is high, and may be difficult to evidence.
It will be interesting to see how far this claim gets, and whether it is something that is settled behind closed doors. It certainly isn’t going to be an easy claim for Trump to pursue but is one that will be watched by many. Watch this space for further updates!
