To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Donald Trump has threatened again to sue the BBC for up to $5billion over the editing of his speeches on Panorama.
The BBC has now complied with two out of three demands laid out by the White House, including a personal apology to Trump for the ‘error of judgement’ from chairman Samir Shah.
The scandal also brought down the Corporation’s director-general, Tim Davie and CEO of news, Deborah Turness.
However Trump has said he will pursue charges against the broadcaster for making ‘false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements’.
It is just the latest in a long series of disputes between the president and media firms, journalists and writers, from CNN to his own niece.
Sign up for all of the latest stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
While many have bowed to his demands and reached settlements, many of Trump’s challenges have been thrown out by judges.
Since his first term in office, the president has sued the press for more than $30billion altogether, with his demands for financial compensation significantly increasing since returning to office in January.
Trump vs ABC
In 2017, Trump launched proceedings against ABC News over claims made by political commentator George Stephanopoulos that he had ‘raped’ author E. Jean Carroll.
A jury returned a technical verdict of ‘sexual abuse’ rather than rape.
Following a seven-year battle in December 2024, ABC’s parent, the Walt Disney Company, announced it had reached an agreement to donate $15million to the Trump Presidential Library on top another $1million in legal costs.
Clash with CBS
Trump demanded $20billion (doubled from an initial $10billion) after accusing CBS News of deceitfully manipulating an interview with Kamala Harris to hinder his electoral prospects prior to the 2024 contest.
The channel had released two versions of Harris’s broadcast on the 60 minutes programme.
CBS denied it had deceptively edited Harris’s interview, which it insisted had been clipped down due to time constraints.
In July, the channel’s parent firm Paramount, said it had agreed to a $16billion settlement paid to Trump’s presidential library including legal fees.
However the company said the settlement did not include any statement of regret or apology.
Standoffs against the New York Times
In 2020, Trump’s reelection campaign sued both the New York Times and the Washington Post over claims made in opinion pieces about the president’s alleged connections with Russia.
Both lawsuits were thrown out by judges in 2021 and 2023 respectively.
The same year Trump filed a separate lawsuit against the NYT, three of its reporters and his own niece, Mary L Trump.
He accused the newspaper and his reporters of an ‘insidious plot’ to convince Mary Trump to ‘smuggle out’ his tax records.
Despite pledging to publish his tax details during his 2016 campaign, Trump never disclosed the records, citing an ongoing audit into his finances.
However the $100million lawsuit was thrown out by a judge who ruled that the president’s case had failed ‘as a matter of constitutional law’.
Can Trump really sue the BBC?
Robert Spritzer, an American political scientist and author, told Metro that the statute of limitations in terms of when such a suit could be filed in Britain has passed.
This means that if this suit goes forward, it would likely be filed in an American court, where the statute of limitations doesn’t apply.
Spritzer argues that the key to understanding Trump is realising litigation is one of his chief weapons that he’s used for decades.
‘He utilised it in thousands of cases while he was a businessman and before he entered politics. And the point is not necessarily to win lawsuits. In Trump’s case, it is less about winning than it is generating publicity that he views as favourable to himself, to harass whoever it is that he is suing, to ratchet up the anxiety for the individuals or organisations that he is suing.’
Spritzer says lawsuits of this calibre could be considered a SLAPP lawsuit – a lawsuit to essentially harass, to provide bad publicity. And Trump has had some success with lawsuits against American media organisations.
Read Metro’s full analysis piece here
The Wall Street Journal Epstein letter
Trump launched a lawsuit against the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal following its publication of a letter sent by him to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The ‘bawdy’ message, sent as part of a book collated for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, before he was charged with sex abuse, including a drawing of a naked woman.
It contained the words: ‘A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be a wonderful secret.’
But Trump branded the message ‘a fake thing’, insisting that it couldn’t have been his because he couldn’t draw and sought $10billion in damages from reporters, executives and even Murdoch himself.
Dow Jones, the company behind WSJ, said it had ‘full confidence’ in the accuracy of its reporting.
2024 election lawsuits
In another clash with a major news firm, Trump sought $15billion in damages from the New York Times and Penguin Random House over three stories published within a month of the 2024 presidential election.
His complaint also cited a book written by the paper’s journalists Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig, which he said attempted to tarnish his reputation as a businessman and harm his election campaign.
After his original case was thrown out on procedural grounds, Trump refiled his lawsuit last month.
The NYT said in a statement that the president’s claims had ‘no merit’ and were an attempt to ‘stifle independent reporting and generate PR attention’.
CNN ‘big lie’ lawsuit
Trump has had many clashes with CNN, including repeatedly branding its coverage ‘fake news’ and refusing to answer questions from its reporters.
The icy relationship with the broadcaster came to a head after the president sued the network for defamation after it used the term ‘big lie’ to describe his denial of his 2021 election defeat.
Seeking $475million in damages, Trump said he had been likened to Adolf Hitler, however the channel insisted that its use of the phrase did not infer he had invoked a genocide on Jews.
The lawsuit was thrown out by Trump appointee Judge Raag Singhal in July 2023, who concluded that use of the phrase did not meet the criteria for defamation.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.