Donald Trump was unmoved by the BBC’s apology, as he revealed he still plans to take the channel to court.
According to an audio recording provided by the White House, the president said on Air Force One that he intended to sue the BBC as early as next week – and would seek damages of between “$1 billion and $5 billion.”
“I think I have to do it,” Trump said. “They cheated. They changed the words that came out of my mouth.”
The president also noted that the United Kingdom was “very embarrassed” by the controversy. However, he indicated that he planned to speak with Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, this weekend.
Trump’s comments come a day after the BBC apologized to the president for editing part of his January 6, 2021 speech at the Ellipse in Washington DC. The apology responded to one of three demands by Trump to prevent a billion-dollar lawsuit over a pre-election documentary.
The BBC previously said the documentary was an “error of judgment” and confirmed that the program in question – “Trump: A Second Chance?” – would not be broadcast on any of its airwaves. A BBC statement also said that while “the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the music video was edited, we strongly disagree that there is a basis for a defamation claim.”
According to the BBC, President Samir Shah also sent a letter to the White House “making clear to President Trump that he and the company are sorry for this change.”
The BBC documentary came under fire last week after an internal memo, leaked to the Telegraph, revealed the channel had “completely misled viewers” with an edited clip suggesting Trump had encouraged his supporters to riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Instead, Trump had urged his supporters to march “peacefully and patriotically to make their voices heard.”
Following the memo and the controversy it sparked, BBC director-general Tim Davie and his head of BBC News, Deborah Turness, resigned.
Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, then followed suit by sending a letter to the BBC, in which they demanded the network remove the documentary, apologize and “appropriately compensate” Trump for allegedly causing “harm to his reputation and finances.” If the broadcaster did not comply with the demands by 5 p.m. ET on Friday, Trump would sue the media outlet for $1 billion.
“These are very dishonest people who tried to get on the scales of a presidential election,” Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social. “On top of everything else, they come from a foreign country, which many consider our number one ally. What a terrible thing for democracy!”
Representatives for the BBC did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
