Why is Trump threatening to sue the BBC?

The BBC has this week been rocked by a series of controversies, leading its Director General and Head of News to resign, and President Donald Trump threatening to sue the corporation over an edit it made to his January 6th, 2021 speech in one of its programmes, which the BBC admits was misleading.

How did the management of the world’s most trusted news broadcaster reach crisis point, and what does this tell us about today’s media landscape?

BBC culture and media editor Katie Razzall explains.

Producers: Viv Jones, Xandra Ellin and Hannah Moore

Executive producer: James Shield

Sound engineer: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

This podcast was edited on 12 November 2025. We removed a reference to Donald Trump “threatening to remove BBC journalists’ access to his press conferences". This statement should have been attributed to a reported briefing by a senior White House official.

(Photo: BBC headquarters in London. Credit: Andy Rain/EPA/Shutterstock)