“Apologies are not enough.” Trump wants 5 billion from the BBC

The BBC’s apology wasn’t enough for Donald Trump. The American president does not let go and announces that he will file a legal action next week, asking for damages of between 1 and 5 billion dollars for the misleading editing of his speech of January 6, 2001, the day of the assault on Capitol Hill which then cost the tycoon his second impeachment. “We have to do it,” Trump said without hesitation, intending to talk about the “scandal” of the British broadcaster directly with Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the weekend. Trump had previously opened up about the possibility that an apology would be enough. But in the end, advised by his lawyers, he decided to proceed with the hard line, thus taking his battle against the ‘fake media’ overseas. In the United States the president has long declared war on the media, repeatedly defined as enemies of the people, and initiated a series of lawsuits against the New York Times, CBS and his friend Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, from which he asked for a billion. The figure he is aiming for with the BBC is particularly high, considering that last year the broadcaster’s annual revenue from license fees amounted to £3.8 billion. A serious scenario is feared for the BBC regardless of the outcome of the proceedings, explained Sir Craig Oliver, former network director in the British public service and then right-hand man for communications in Downing Street of the former conservative prime minister David Cameron. In fact, the alternatives are to spend “public money either to support legal costs or to seek an out-of-court settlement”, Oliver highlighted, specifying that a possible plea bargain would also represent a step backwards compared to the line followed so far. The BBC has in fact admitted tampering with the president’s speech in the Panorama program through the editing of two separate passages, and has agreed to make a mea culpa. But it has evoked an involuntary error, without defamatory intentions. In a letter to Trump’s lawyers, The BBC explained why in its opinion there were no grounds for filing a lawsuit, including the fact that the program had only been broadcast in Great Britain and that the president had not been damaged by it, having been re-elected shortly after. However, “They changed the words that came out of my mouth” to give them a “completely different meaning”, Trump complained. “My words were beautiful, and they turned them into not beautiful ones.” 2021. “Fake News was a fantastic term but now it is not strong enough. What has happened is more than false, it is corrupt”, he added without hiding his frustration and echoing the words of the White House spokeswoman who defined the BBC as a “left-wing propaganda machine unfortunately paid for by British taxpayers”. Trump’s harsh punch could put pressure on the so far good relations between the United States and Great Britain, and open a new chapter of tension on both sides of the Atlantic.