US President Donald Trump blasted the BBC as a 'another fake outfit' and 'the ones who put terrible words in my mouth' on board Air Force One this afternoon. Mr Trump also said the Corporation 'don't know what to do' about a multi-billion lawsuit he has filed for defamation. The president said the publicly-funded broadcaster had 'put AI in my mouth' and labelled it a 'fake outlet'.
Speaking to the media on board the presidential plane this afternoon, Mr Trump was asked about a reported strike on an Iranian girls school on the first day of the US-led war. 'Admiral Cooper of [US Central Command] was asked yesterday about the strike on the girls school on the first day of the war,' the reporter said. Mr Trump replied: 'You're talking about the original - that is under investigation.' The reporter said: 'Are you able to confirm that it was a US missile?' 'Who are you with?' the president asked.
When the reporter said he was with the Corporation, Mr Trump said 'fake BBC' and began a tirade against the outlet. He continued: 'You mean the ones that put AI in my mouth. The ones that had me saying a statement that they now admit was not true. The ones that put terrible words in my mouth and then had to admit that it was fake. The ones that are being sued now for $5billion and don't know what to do. You're with BBC? They're another fake outfit.'
Mr Trump had filed a lawsuit worth $10billion against the BBC in December after the embattled Corporation was found to have doctored his speech in a Panorama episode. The BBC had apologised to the president for the 12-second clip in the 2024 documentary Trump: A Second Chance which spliced together two clips from his speech made on January 6, 2021. In the programme it was suggested Mr Trump told the crowd: 'We're going to walk down to the Capitol and I'll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.' His words were taken from sections of the speech almost an hour apart. When news of the edit emerged last year, the BBC issued a retraction for 'unintentionally' giving 'the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action'.
Filed in the Southern District of Florida, the lawsuit claimed one count of defamation and one count of violating a Florida trade practices law. Mr Trump's legal team claimed $5billion in damages for each count. In March BBC lawyers asked a court to throw out the lawsuit, warning the case would have a 'chilling effect' on its reporting. The Corporation claimed Mr Trump's reputation had not been damaged by the documentary because it aired in the UK a week before his re-election. It added the programme had not been aired in the US or Florida and so the court had no jurisdiction to rule on the case. In its case, the BBC said: 'More than a year later, even after being re-elected with the support of a sizeable majority of Florida voters, the president alleged that the documentary defamed him in Florida – where defendants never aired it.' Despite Trump's lawyers' claims the Corporation said it never made the documentary available in the US on Britbox International, a subscription streaming service owned by BBC Studios, or on BBC.com, its international website. The BBC added that though third-parties had bought the rights to show the documentary abroad, none aired it in the US.
