Trump threat to sue BBC for $1billion

President: Beeb must say sorry by Friday

- BY JONATHAN WALKER Whitehall Editor

DONALD Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for $l1billion after the broadcaster admitted it edited a speech to give the impression he called for riots.

BBC chairman Samir Shah apologised for an “error of judgment” after conceding that “the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action’.

It followed Sunday's resignations of BBC director-general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness.

But his admission did little to dampen fury in the White House, with the US president threatening legal action unless the broadcaster issued “a full and fair retraction of the documentary and any and all other false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading and inflammatory statements about President Trump in as conspicuous a manner as they were originally published”.

In a letter to the BBC, Mr Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito said the president “will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars) in damages’, unless it retracted its report by Friday.

CENSORSHIP

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed BBC News is “dying” and said: “Everyone should watch GB News’

Reform leader Nigel Farage said he spoke to Mr Trump on Friday, telling a press conference: “He just said to me, ‘Is this how you treat your best ally?’”