Former BBC Director-General Lord Tony Hall on Sunday argued it would not be appropriate for the network to compensate President Trump for its atrociously edited footage of his January 6 speech, which made it appear as though he incited the violence that followed.
🇬🇧🇺🇸 BBC EDITED TRUMP’S JAN 6 SPEECH TO MAKE HIM LOOK WORSE
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 3, 2025
A whistleblower memo reveals the BBC did cut and rearrange Trump’s Jan. 6 speech in their Panorama documentary.
The edit removes parts where he told people to act “peacefully,” making it sound like he was just riling… pic.twitter.com/4yP0spftma
"I don’t think we should agree to any money being paid to Donald Trump. You’re talking about license fee payers’ money, you’re talking about public money. It would not be appropriate," Hall said in an interview on Sunday.
“It would not be appropriate”
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) November 16, 2025
Former BBC director general Tony Hall says “license fee payers money” should not go to Donald Trump #BBCLauraK https://t.co/DGlPhSMzoS pic.twitter.com/mamTGM6XZ7
The former director provided yet another reason why taxpayers should not be funding media outlets.
President Trump initially threatened to sue the network on Nov. 10, and those threats have continued through the last week.
"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."
The network officially apologized to the president on Thursday. They added that they have no plans to rerun the documentary. The company has also said that they "strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim," by President Trump.
Aboard Air Force One on Friday, Trump said that he believes he has to sue the BBC: "I think I have to do it. They’ve even admitted that they cheated … They changed the words coming out of my mouth. The people of the UK are very angry about what happened."
The BBC has yet to hear from the president's legal team.