Trump Expands Billion-Dollar Shakedown Scheme to Foreign Shores

Keep calm and sue them all?

That is the approach President Donald Trump appears to be taking, now threatening the British Broadcasting Corporation with a lawsuit similar to his past shakedowns of CBS News and others on this side of the pond.

Trump’s lawyers threatened in a letter that they may seek as much as $1 billion in damages over a deceptive edit the British public broadcaster made in a documentary about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol.

The BBC admitted to making an “error of judgment” and apologized to Trump on Monday—a day after its top official, Director General Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness, resigned over the scandal.

MAGA outrage stems from the BBC’s Panorama program, which aired just before the 2024 presidential election. The BBC used clips from Trump’s speech on Jan. 6, 2021, including when he famously urged his supporters to “fight like hell.” However, the doc omitted Trump telling those same protesters to demonstrate peacefully.

The White House referred the Daily Beast’s request for comment to Trump’s personal attorneys, who did not respond to an email. However, the president’s legal team accused the BBC of defaming Trump in a statement to other outlets.

“The BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the Presidential Election,” a spokesman for the president’s personal legal team told NBC News. ”President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news.”

A BBC spokesperson said the broadcaster “will review the letter and respond directly in due course.”

Trump, 79, took a victory lap over the resignations from top BBC brass.

Shot: Chaser: pic.twitter.com/n0U08PnUJb

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) November 9, 2025

“The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught ‘doctoring’ my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th,” he posted on Truth Social. “These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy!”

Trump’s threat to sue follows a similar playbook to the one he used to secure a $16 million settlement from CBS News. He alleged that the network deceptively edited a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris in 2024 to improve her image and demanded an astounding $20 billion in damages.

Despite experts slamming the lawsuit as meritless, the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, which was in the middle of a merger that required FCC approval, agreed to settle with Trump for $16 million. That figure matched the sum Disney paid to the Trump presidential library fund and to cover legal fees in a defamation suit over an interview ABC’s George Stephanopoulos did with GOP Rep. Nancy Mace.

A similar shakedown effort by Trump remains underway against The New York Times and the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal—though the newspapers have indicated they plan to put up more of a fight than the networks did.

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