'Huge Victory': Trump may get his pound of flesh from the BBC after all

A federal judge in Florida just delivered some bad news to the liberal media corporation that President Donald Trump has characterized as "a terrible abuser of the truth."

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Kuntz, a Trump nominee, denied the British Broadcasting Corporation's motion to dismiss the president's $10 billion defamation lawsuit, clearing the case to proceed.

'It had edited a video to make it appear as though President Trump made a statement he never made.'

Trump will, accordingly, have his opportunity in summary judgment or at trial to hold the company accountable for a documentary he calls "fake news."

Background

One week ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the BBC aired a "Panorama" documentary that presented a heavily edited version of Trump's Jan. 6, 2021, speech at the Save America March in the national capital. The edited version made it appear as though he had incited the crowd to violence.

Trump originally said in his speech:

Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down — and I’ll be there with you — we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down. Anyone you want. ... And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

After raising concerns about voting irregularities and election security roughly 55-minutes later in his speech, Trump stated:

Most people would stand there at 9 o'clock in the evening and say, "I want to thank you very much," and they go off to some other life, but I said, "Something's wrong here, something's really wrong — can't have happened." And we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.

The "Panorama" documentary spliced and rearranged Trump's remarks to make it look as though he said, "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."

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Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images

The documentary thus bound together two elements of the speech that were thematically divorced and separated by over 50 minutes. It also failed to include Trump's call for supporters to behave "peacefully" and played footage of flag-waving men descending on the Capitol taken prior to the president's speech.

Apparently, there were internal concerns at the BBC over this edit.

A whistleblower memo obtained by the Telegraph noted that the "mangled" footage made the president "'say' things [he] never actually said" and insinuated, with the help of the footage of men marching on the Capitol, that "Trump's supporters had taken up his 'call to arms.'"

In November 2025, Tim Davie resigned as director-general of the BBC and Deborah Turness resigned as head of BBC News. The liberal media company also issued a retraction.

The resignations and retraction weren't enough to settle the score.

The lawsuit

Trump filed a lawsuit against the BBC in December 2025, claiming its "deceptive and defamatory distortion, doctoring, manipulation, and splicing damaged President Trump in his occupation, damaged his professional reputation, and portrayed him as engaging in supposed calls for rioting and violence that he never actually made."

The complaint alleged further that the "malicious depiction" constituted a "brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election's outcome to President Trump's detriment."

The lawsuit, which accused the BBC of defamation and violating the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, initially demanded at least $5 billion in damages. The amended complaint filed in August demanded at least $10 billion in damages.

Over the past year, the BBC has desperately attempted to have the case dismissed, arguing that Trump "cannot show the BBC purposefully aimed the Documentary at Florida"; Trump will not be able to prove actual harm; and the documentary contains protected expressions of opinion.

Green light

In his order Tuesday denying the BBC's motion to dismiss, Judge Kuntz said that Trump's opportunity to prove his claims "is left for another day." It appears, however, that the federal judge may have already seen enough.

In addition to expressing skepticism about the company's rationalizations and referencing other "examples of BBC playing fast and loose with the factual accuracy of their media content," Kuntz noted that:

• with regard to the "Panorama" documentary, the BBC confirmed "it had edited a video to make it appear as though President Trump made a statement he never made";
• the BBC has "acknowledged it chose to release the video in a documentary only a week before the 2024 Presidential Election, at the time it would have the most impact"; and
• the BBC's "alleged defamatory statement is not a protected expression of opinion."

Having determined that Trump has both "plausibly alleged a comprehensive framework of actual malice" and "plausibly pled damages," Kuntz cleared the case to proceed.

He did, however, grant the BBC's motion to dismiss the second count alleging that the company violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, having determined that the documentary did not constitute "commercial speech."

Trump called the ruling a "Huge Victory against Fake News BBC."

"We will continue fighting against, and defeating, all of those who try to deceive the American People!" added the president.

A BBC spokesperson said in a statement, "We are surprised by this decision but respect the Court’s authority and note the case will now proceed to the next stage."

The spokesperson added: "We remain confident in our position and will continue to respond through the proper legal process."

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