London —

Donald Trump’s assault on the media went global this week, as he threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion over a documentary that his lawyer claimed made “false, defamatory, malicious, disparaging, and inflammatory” edits to a speech the US president made before the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The threat could tip the BBC into a financial abyss and has deepened the worst crisis for the British public broadcaster in recent history, raising questions about its future in a polarized media and political landscape.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is the scandal about?

In October 2024, days before the US presidential election, the BBC aired a documentary called “Trump: A Second Chance?”

At the time, the film gained positive reviews in the UK – the Guardian praised it for taking Trump and the MAGA phenomenon seriously – but attracted little attention in the US.

And that’s how it might have remained, had it not been for a now-notorious leaked memo, which – amid a litany of other complaints about BBC output – revealed how in one small section, the documentary had spliced together comments made nearly an hour apart by Trump during his infamous January 6 speech.

“We’re gonna 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,” Trump was shown to say.

Trump actually said: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.” Fifty-four minutes