Trump vs the BBC…what happens next?
Americast
BBC
4.2 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a Fox News interview released on Tuesday, Donald Trump says he has an ‘obligation’ to sue the BBC for the way it edited a section of a speech he made on January 6th 2021 - the day of the US Capitol riots - as part of a Panorama documentary. The Chair of the BBC, Samir Shah said “the BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement”.
The BBC has been given a Friday deadline by Trump to respond or face possible legal action, with the US president threatening to sue the corporation for a billion dollars.
Anthony and Marianna speak to Elie Honig, CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst who assesses the likelihood of the case ending up in court, and how any damages could be calculated. We also look at whether any of Trump’s previous legal actions against other media outlets can predict how this dispute may play out.
Plus, newly released emails between Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein from 2011 allege that Donald Trump 'spent hours' with one of Epstein’s victims. The documents have been published by House Democrats and refer to the president as the "dog that hasn't barked.” Donald Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has accused Democrats of “trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects.”
Anthony and Marianna unpack what this means for the administration and whether it could affect the president’s approval ratings.
HOSTS: * Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations correspondent * Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent
GUEST: * Elie Honig, Senior Legal Analyst at CNN
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This episode was made by George Dabby and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:06.0 | Donald Trump has doubled down on this threat he made to sue the BBC for the way it edited a section of his speech that he gave on January 6th in 2021. |
| 0:15.4 | The edit of that speech was part of a panorama documentary that came out before the election in October of last year. |
| 0:22.1 | This is what Donald Trump has now told Laura Ingram on Fox News this week. |
| 0:26.2 | But tonight you are saying to our viewers that you will go forward and file a defamation |
| 0:31.7 | lawsuit against the BBC. |
| 0:33.9 | Well, I think I have an obligation to do it because you can't get people, you can't allow people to do that. |
| 0:39.0 | So the BBC says it has seen the legal letter from President Trump's people and that is going to |
| 0:43.5 | respond directly in due course. That's to quote the BBC. But the question now is, how exactly |
| 0:48.5 | will the BBC respond? How strong a case does the president have against the BBC when it comes |
| 0:53.9 | to an issue like defamation? |
| 0:55.8 | And what could happen if the BBC decides to take him on in court? |
| 1:00.0 | We are going to try and answer all of those questions and lots more on today's episode. |
| 1:04.7 | Welcome to AmeriCast. |
| 1:08.8 | AmeriCast from BBC News. |
| 1:11.8 | When Donald Trump calls, they say, yes, sir. |
| 1:14.2 | Right away, sir. |
| 1:15.3 | Happy to lick your boot, sir. |
| 1:17.1 | We are the sickest country in the world. |
| 1:19.6 | Oh, dear. |
| 1:20.3 | Are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry? |
| 1:23.2 | Of course the president supports peaceful protest. |
... |
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