BBC Issues Apology to Trump Over Misleading Edit of January 6 Speech

Fri Nov 14 2025 13:20:42 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

The BBC has apologized to former President Donald Trump regarding the editing of his January 6, 2021 speech in a recent Panorama episode, citing unintentional misleading implications. However, the BBC has rejected Trump's demands for compensation.

The BBC has formally apologized to Donald Trump for a misleading edit of his January 6 speech that was featured in a Panorama episode. The organization acknowledged the edit created a false impression of Trump calling for violent action. While expressing regret for the editing, the BBC dismissed Trump's request for $1 billion in damages and insists the clip was taken in a broader context. The controversy has led to significant resignations within the BBC's leadership, and further allegations of similar misleading edits have emerged.

The BBC has apologized to US President Donald Trump for a Panorama episode that spliced parts of his 6 January 2021 speech together, but rejected his demands for compensation.

The corporation said the edit had given the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action and said it would not show the 2024 programme again.

Lawyers for Trump have threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn (£759m) in damages unless the corporation issues a retraction, apologizes, and compensates him.

The culture secretary told the BBC she was confident the corporation was gripping this with the seriousness that it demands, adding her role was to ensure the highest standards are upheld.

Lisa Nandy, highlighting the BBC's independence from government, said she was talking daily to the corporation's chair, the director general, and senior leadership.

The fallout from the scandal led to the resignations of BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness on Sunday.

BBC News has approached the White House for comment.

The apology comes hours after a second similarly edited clip broadcast on Newsnight in 2022 was revealed by the Daily Telegraph.

In its Corrections and Clarifications section, published on Thursday evening, the BBC said the Panorama programme had been reviewed after criticism of how Trump's speech had been edited.

The BBC had been given a deadline of 22:00 GMT (17:00 EST) on Friday to respond.

We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action, the statement said.

Lawyers for the BBC have written to President Trump's legal team in response to a letter received on Sunday, a BBC spokesperson said.

BBC chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president's speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme, they said.

They added: While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.

In Trump's speech he said: We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.

More than 50 minutes later in the speech, he said: And we fight. We fight like hell.

In the Panorama programme the clip shows him as saying: We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.

Speaking to Fox News, Trump said his speech had been butchered and the way it was presented had defrauded viewers.

The BBC received the letter from Trump's lawyers on Sunday. It demands a full and fair retraction of the documentary, an apology, and that the BBC appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused.