Trump’s £7,500,000,000 lawsuit won’t solve the BBC’s problems

Donald Trump has confirmed what he’d been threatening: he is suing the BBC in the US, seeking up to $10 billion (£7.5 billion) over how it edited a clip of his 6 January 2021 speech ahead of the Capitol riot.

The point of a figure like that isn’t about fair compensation, or even an already rich man trying to make himself even richer.

It’s intimidation – hamstringing the corporation with years of legal bills, months of headlines, and a chill that lingers long after the case, or even his Presidency, is over.

If your first instinct is to shrug, smirk, or even cheer on the President, – because you’ve got your own grievances with the BBC, you’re exactly who Trump and his allies in the UK are counting on.

But I implore you to put any negative feelings aside and have a real think about who, and what, you may be endorsing by refusing to stick up for this British institution.

Because while we can argue about impartiality, editorial judgement and whether the licence fee still works, there’s a difference between criticising the BBC and cheering on a foreign president trying to bully an important British global soft power.

Two things can be true at once. The BBC needs improving. And it needs defending from this most bitter of bad faith actors.

The BBC has already apologised for the edit at the centre of this row. It should answer questions about how it happened and what safeguards failed. But Trump isn’t after accountability. He is after submission.

And that comes at a cost.

It will be public money being diverted from entertainment, journalism, local radio and the World Service into American-style litigation. Even if the BBC wins, the punishment is the process.

The government’s charter review into the BBC, published today, proposes keeping the licence fee but suggests other changes, like putting some content behind a paywall in a bid to boost the corporation’s funding.

Think how much content you might have to pay for if the BBC is on the hook for a multibillion pound settlement, or at the very least a multimillion pound legal bill.

We are lucky to be home to the world’s biggest and most trusted public news organisation – 77% of UK adults feel BBC news is valuable to society.
But you dislike the BBC’s coverage of Brexit, trans rights, Gaza, strikes – I truly get it. For me, the latest frustration has been Eurovision.

The BBC’s handling of the contest’s Israel controversy has left a rancid taste in my mouth.

I’m gutted and still, I don’t want Trump anywhere near the BBC – I want this case thrown out, and quickly.

Because while the BBC makes mistakes, it is far more accountable for them than a number of other media organisations, or even Trump himself.

When BBC news gets something wrong, it doesn’t just quietly tweak a headline and hope nobody notices. It corrects.

It reports the correction. It apologises, often using the same breaking news push alerts that reach tens of millions of phones.

That is what accountability looks like, even if it is a dirty word for MAGA fans at home and abroad.

The BBC feels like an exception in our modern media ecosystem, where mistruths can fly all day and apologies never catch up.

GB News, for example, has repeatedly aired serious, unchallenged conspiracy claims about everything from Covid vaccines to misogynism on-air.

That’s the contrast. The BBC can make mistakes, apologise, and still get dragged into a $10bn legal ambush while other broadcasters edge into the gutter, shrug off outrage, and carry on.

If you think that’s a healthy direction for Britain, you’re kidding yourself.

This is why the government must stop treating Trump like a storm you can hide from by keeping your head down.

Keir Starmer has tried the low-profile, no-drama approach. But appeasement doesn’t buy you stability – the US has reportedly suspended the UK’s ‘Tech Prosperity Deal’ that we worked so hard for – it just buys the next demand.

Ministers must back the BBC publicly and make clear that attempts to weaponise US courts against UK public institutions won’t go anywhere. Stop acting as if the only choice is ‘keep quiet or risk a tantrum’.

A tantrum is coming either way.

Before anyone says ‘Well, the BBC deserves it’ – remember what’s actually at stake.

The BBC is not just another broadcaster. It’s one of the few institutions that still tries – however imperfectly – to serve everyone.

It makes the stuff we argue about, yes, but it also makes the stuff we share: radio, drama, sport, children’s TV and local services.

The World Service in particular is Britain at its best: trusted information in places where truth is dangerous and scarce.

In Afghanistan, where girls have been barred from education, the BBC World Service has been running an educational programme offering lessons hosted by Afghan female journalists evacuated after the Taliban takeover.

British values of trusted information and world-class education proudly exported by the BBC to those who need it most.

That is what you’re defending when you defend the BBC. Not a presenter you dislike. Not a single editorial call you disagreed with.

Not a song contest losing its soul right now. Something bigger: an idea that public-interest media is worth having, worth arguing with, and worth protecting from bullies.

So yes, demand a better BBC. Push for reform. Call out its blind spots.

But don’t mistake Trump’s attack for ‘accountability’. This isn’t about one edit, one lawsuit, or even one broadcaster.

This is a battle for the soul of our country about whether we still believe in public service, shared facts, and in institutions we can criticise without destroying.

The moment we don’t answer that is the moment we trade that soul for fear, vendettas and power.

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