Trump’s decision to sue the BBC is part of a familiar theme

With that in mind, his decision to launch a $10bn lawsuit against the BBC needs to be seen within the context of his long-standing confrontation with mainstream media, even if the BBC case is unusual for several reasons, not least that the litigation concerns a foreign broadcaster with a relatively modest profile in the US.

'Election interference'

In a 33-page complaint, Trump's attorneys asked a federal court in Miami for a jury trial, alleging that a BBC documentary that aired a week before the 2024 presidential election was "a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the election's outcome to President Trump's detriment".

The lawsuit claims that the BBC "maliciously" spliced together parts of his speech to supporters in Washington shortly before they stormed the Capitol. The splice included a section early in the speech, when he urged them to walk to the Capitol, and a section nearly 55 minutes later, when he told them to "fight like hell". The BBC, which has already issued a formal apology to Trump, argued that Trump's claim did not provide a basis for defamation.

Initial concerns about how the speech had been edited were first raised in an internal BBC memo. When this leaked to the British press, it led to the resignations of the national broadcaster's director-general Tim Davie and its head of news Deborah Turness, who both took responsibility for the BBC's handling of the case. BBC bosses think the resignations and apology should be sufficient, especially since the documentary did not air in the US and therefore had little impact on Trump's re-election bid (which was ultimately successful).

See you in court

The BBC's intention to fight the lawsuit raises the possibility of a legal battle over whether the edit of the speech caused harm to the president's reputation. "As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case," a BBC spokesperson said, according to Reuters. "We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings."

Unlike Trump's lawsuits against America's mainstream broadcasters, his decision to sue the BBC has the potential to cause a major diplomatic rift in relations between the US and UK, because the BBC is a publicly funded organisation, so any settlement to Trump would be paid for by British taxpayers. Opposition politicians have urged British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to raise the defamation case with Trump. Early indications are that the UK government intends to back the BBC in its legal dispute with the president.

Stephen Kinnock, a senior minister in Starmer's administration, said the broadcaster should stand firm against Trump's lawsuit. "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.