speech

For over an hour Tuesday night, Presidential Trump vied with pugnacious Trump.

The White House had promised a conciliatory and uplifting State of the Union address, which stood to reason. It’s one thing to inveigh against the mess Trump said he inherited a year ago and another to laud the job he claims to have done cleaning it up.

FULL COVERAGE: State of the Union »

Gone, then, was the wreckage, the ruin and the dystopian “American carnage” he deplored in the glowering speech at his inauguration. Instead, Trump offered a vision of hopefulness and light — for a time, anyway.

“This is our new American moment,” he said loftily in the early moments of his address. “There has never been a better time to start living the American dream.”

But those grace notes were soon overshadowed by an increasingly harsh tone, as though the president couldn’t or didn’t care to contain his more ad-libbed and aggressive self.

He needled Democrats over the partial dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, one of his predecessor’s proudest achievements. He resurrected the controversy over the national anthem and the dissent of kneeling black athletes.

When he spoke of immigration, perhaps the touchiest issue facing a gridlocked Congress, he placed it in a dark frame, with talk of gang violence, of alien intruders stealing jobs and a suggestion of unending “chain” migrants — aunts, uncles, cousins and other family members — leaching taxpayer dollars.

In his closest approximation to an olive branch, Trump said he would support a proposal offering a path to citizenship for 1.8 million children — so-called Dreamers — who were brought to America illegally by their parents. But only, he said, if Democrats would agree to a border wall and other changes in legal immigration they consider anathema.

The result was groans and hisses and boos from that side of the House chamber.

The annual speech to Congress is one of Washington’s most carefully choreographed set pieces, and for portions of it Trump hewed closely to a familiar script

He assayed the state of the union, pronouncing it “strong.” He outlined an ambitious agenda — which lawmakers will mostly ignore — crowed about his achievements, made a feint in the direction of bipartisanship and saluted a large number of invited guests who served as props representing different bullet points (immigration, a strong military, the opioid addiction crisis) of his speech.

It was all terribly conventional, but only to a point.

There were many long sections that could just have easily been delivered at one of Trump’s roisterous “Make America Great Again” campaign rallies, down to the moment when the ranks of Republican lawmakers broke into a lusty chant of “USA! USA!” as the president, chin out, approvingly took in the scene.

The contrast to the last time Trump stood in the well of the House was striking.

Eleven months ago, he delivered a more subdued performance, earning plaudits and generating widespread talk of a presidential turning point or, in that most overused expression, a pivot toward a more staid and conformist style of governance.

Then, days later, Trump was back to tweeting about a “bad (or sick)” President Obama bugging Trump Tower, a figment that roused his political base but instantly banished any Democratic goodwill or notions of presidential normalcy.

Trump has shattered political convention in so many ways that it is difficult to enumerate them all. One of the most significant is this: Although the economy is perking smartly along and Americans tell pollsters they feel better about their financial well-being than they have in years, the president has gotten very little credit.

Indeed, his approval rating stands at a historical low for a chief executive this early in his term, severing the long-standing correlation between economic good times and voter satisfaction.

His speech Tuesday night, with its prime-time prominence and audience reaching in the tens of millions, offered a chance to address that problem. “Over the last year, we have made incredible progress and achieved extraordinary success,” Trump said, reeling off a number of favorable economic statistics.

But much of the address seemed aimed at a far narrower audience.

To a greater degree than any recent president, Trump has used his time in office to appease the relatively narrow slice of the electorate — older, whiter, alienated, aggrieved — that placed him in power, opting not to reach out, bend and seek to broaden that coalition.

His uncompromising performance Tuesday night perfectly encapsulated that approach. Supporters found much to like and detractors plenty to reinforce their contempt.

It is too much to expect any single speech, much less one as politically freighted as the State of the Union, to instantly bridge such a yawning gap. If anything, though, Trump’s provocative remarks seemed likely to push warring Democrats and Republicans even further apart.

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@markzbarabak

Reporting from DAVOS, Switzerland — President Trump gave his salesman’s pitch for America on Friday before an international crowd of corporate and political titans, and took credit for its economic success, even as he was shadowed by fresh clouds from home about his heightened jeopardy in the Russia investigation and opposition to his immigration plan.

Contrary to predictions that Trump might use his keynote address to the World Economic Forum in Davos to bash multilateral trade deals and international alliances, as he did during his campaign, he appeared to soften the edges of his “America First” policy in his speech to the elites who gather in this glitzy Alpine resort each winter to champion free trade and global cooperation.

“America is open for business and we are competitive once again,” Trump told several hundred attendees, reading his speech from teleprompters. “Now is the perfect time to bring your business, your jobs and your investments to the United States.”

Given the complaints here about Trump’s aggressive trade policies and worries that America is withdrawing from its global leadership role, Trump received general credit for showing up and hobnobbing with fellow world leaders and moguls at an event that has not seen a U.S. president since Bill Clinton in 2000.

Some in the crowd booed and hissed when Trump, during a question-and-answer session that followed his speech, said it “wasn’t until I became a politician that I realize how nasty, how mean, how vicious, and how fake the press can be.”

While Trump’s anti-media remarks are familiar to Americans, they struck a dissonant note on the international stage since U.S. presidents historically have been global clarions for a free press.

Although the evidence was scant, Trump dropped at least one hint he might be moderating other views.

Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau announced here that his country would join 10 others that have agreed to move forward on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact without the United States. Trump withdrew from the proposed accord shortly after taking office, calling it a “horrible deal.”

In his comments here, Trump cracked the door slightly to reentering the TPP in some way, saying he was open to negotiating trade deals with the 11 countries “either individually, or perhaps as a group.”

That sparked a buzz of comment here and on social media. Trump vowed to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement during the campaign, but his administration is seeking to renegotiate it with Mexico and Canada. In contrast, the White House has shown no sign it is reconsidering its decision on TPP.

And while global challenges like climate change and poverty dominate the agenda here, the CEOs and other top executives Trump met in his 36-hour visit publicly applauded the corporate tax cuts he signed into law last month.

All that put Trump in a good mood.

“I’ve been a cheerleader for our country,” Trump said in his speech, which largely echoed familiar White House talking points. “And everybody representing a company or a country has to be a cheerleader, or no matter what you do, it’s just not going to work.”

Trump said he will put America first just as other leaders should put their countries first, a line he used in a harder-edged address he delivered at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November.

Trump accused “some countries” of exploiting the international trading system at the expense of others. He said he supports free trade, but it “needs to be fair and it needs to be reciprocal.”

“The United States will no longer turn a blind eye to unfair economic practices, including massive intellectual property theft, industrial subsidies, and pervasive state-led economic planning,” he said, probably a reference to China.

At his raucous political rallies back home, that sentiment often generates loud cheers. The crowd at Davos stayed silent, saving polite applause for the end of his remarks.

As he often does, Trump claimed credit for the booming U.S. economy, citing growth numbers and the removal business regulations. That message was partly diluted by news Friday that U.S. growth slowed slightly in the fourth quarter to 2.6%, which was short of Trump’s projections.

The Davos conference is considered the premier event for the world’s wealthy glitterati, a familiar group to the billionaire owner of Mar-a-Lago and other high-end hotels and resorts. In his speech, Trump nodded to his working-class supporters, saying that “when people are forgotten, the world becomes fractured.”

Trump also couldn’t resist taking a jab at Hillary Clinton despite the American tradition of steering clear of partisan politics while on foreign soil. In the question-and-answer session, Trump said the stock market would have dropped 50% if “the opposing party” had won instead of him.

The audience scored the tone of Trump’s speech carefully, given his antagonism to international organizations and pacts, such as the Paris climate accord, trade agreements and the Iran nuclear deal that are generally celebrated at the conference.

It was partly overshadowed at home after the New York Times reported late Thursday that Trump tried to fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III last June, halting the effort only after White House Counsel Donald McGahn threatened to resign.

Nor could Trump escape fallout here from reports that he had labeled African nations “shithole countries” during a recent Oval Office meeting with several members of Congress. The comments sparked widespread condemnation around the globe.

Trump ignored reporters’ questions about the crude language when he met early Friday with Paul Kagame, longtime president of Rwanda and incoming chairman of the African Union. Kagame is the first African leader Trump has met since his comments were reported on Jan. 11.

The African Union had called on Trump to apologize for the remarks, which he has denied making. It is not known whether the dispute came up in Trump’s private discussion with Kagame. A subsequent statement from the White House summarizing the meeting did not mention the issue.

“It’s a great honor to be with President Kagame,” Trump told reporters as he sat beside Kagame and several aides, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “We have had tremendous discussions.”

Kagame also tried to smooth over the dispute, thanking Trump “for the support we have received from you … and your administration.”

Trump also dismissed a shouted question about the Mueller development as “fake news.” Instead, he boasted of how his appearance had swelled the crowd at Davos this year.

“We have a tremendous crowd, and a crowd like they’ve never had before. It’s a crowd like they’ve never had before at Davos,” Trump bragged as he entered the hall with Klaus Schwab, the Germany founder of the forum.

Then, in a rare burst of modesty, he quipped, “I assume they’re here because of Klaus.”

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Twitter: @noahbierman

UPDATES:

1:20 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details from Trump’s meetings in Davos.

6 a.m.: This article was updated with Trump’s comments.

This article was originally published at 2:10 a.m.

Nov. 14 (UPI) — The BBC issued a retraction and a formal apology to U.S. President Donald Trump for edits to a speech he gave ahead of the Jan. 6 riots on Capitol Hill that made it appear as if he was inciting his supporters to violence.

The British public service broadcaster apologized Thursday night via the corrections page on its website, with the apology the lead story across all of its news platforms on television, radio and online during the evening and first thing Friday morning.

BBC Chairman Samir Shah also penned a personal written apology to the White House, however, the BBC indicated it would not be paying compensation, as demanded by Trump.

The retraction said an edition of Panorama titled Trump: A Second Chance, broadcast on Oct. 28, 2024, used excerpts lifted from different parts of Trump’s speech in a way that inadvertently made it appear they were contiguous.

The BBC’s version had Trump saying, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell,” when his actual words were, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”

The BBC said it accepted that this “gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.”

“The BBC would like to apologize to President Trump for that error of judgment.”

However, the notice made no mention of compensation, one of President Trump’s key demands in his letter threatening the BBC with a $1 billion lawsuit alleging the program had defamed him and giving it until 5 p.m. EST on Friday to respond.

A BBC spokesman said the corporation strongly disagreed “there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

There was no immediate response from either the White House or Trump’s legal counsel.

The Panorama program was not an isolated incident, according to The Telegraph, which said the BBC’s Newsnight program did something very similar with the same speech in a broadcast in 2022.

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said that from the latest revelation it was “now clear that the BBC engaged in a pattern of defamation against President Trump” and accused it of attempting to try to influence the outcome of the 2024 election.

The debacle has sparked a furious debate about editorial impartiality at the BBC, which is funded by a $229 annual license that every household with a TV must pay, prompting calls for an overhaul of internal processes and procedures.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy acknowledged the BBC’s editorial rules were “in some cases not robust enough and in other cases not consistently applied,” and appeared to suggest the replacement for director-general Tim Davie, who quit Sunday, must be from a journalism background.

Davie spent the first half of his career as a senior marketing executive at PepsiCo before joining the BBC’s marketing division.

The opposition Conservative’s Shadow Culture Secretary, Nigel Huddleston, said he was waiting to see if Trump accepted the BBC’s response to be the “fulsome apology” he was entitled to receive.

“I do not want the British license fee payer or the rest of the BBC to pay the price for poor editorial decisions made by BBC journalists, he said in a post on X.

“However, we would all be in a better position if the BBC had never made these errors in the first place. The BBC needs a fundamental review of processes and procedures to ensure that such failures in impartiality never happen again.”

LONDON — The BBC apologized Thursday to President Trump over a misleading edit of his speech on Jan. 6, 2021 but said it had not defamed him, rejecting the basis for his $1 billion lawsuit threat.

The BBC said Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House saying that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit of the speech Trump gave before some of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify the results of President-elect Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

The BBC said there are no plans to rebroadcast the documentary, which had spliced together parts of his speech that came almost an hour apart.

“We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action,” the BBC wrote in a retraction.

Trump’s lawyer had sent the BBC a letter demanding an apology and threatened to file a $1 billion lawsuit for the harm the documentary caused him. It had set a Friday deadline for the BBC to respond.

The dispute was sparked by an edition of the BBC’s flagship current affairs series “Panorama,” titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” broadcast days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

The third-party production company that made the film spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.”

Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

Director-General Tim Davie, along with news chief Deborah Turness, quit Sunday, saying the scandal was damaging the BBC and “as the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me.”

The apology and retraction came as BBC acknowledged that its Newsnight program in 2022 had also misleadingly spliced together parts of Trump’s speech.

Melley writes for the Associated Press.

LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer refused to say Wednesday whether he would urge President Trump to drop his threat to sue the BBC for a billion dollars over the broadcaster’s edit of a speech he made after losing the 2020 presidential election.

During his weekly questioning in the House of Commons, Starmer was asked by Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, whether he would intervene in the row between Trump and the British public broadcaster, and to rule out the idea that the British people would hand over money to the U.S. president.

Instead of responding directly, Starmer reiterated the government’s line since the BBC’s director-general, Tim Davie, announced his resignation on Sunday because of the scandal.

“I believe in a strong and independent BBC,” he said. “Some would rather BBC didn’t exist, I’m not one of them.”

However, he added that “where mistakes are made, they do need to get their house in order.”

In an interview that aired Tuesday on Fox News, Trump said he intended to go through with his threat to sue the BBC, a century-old institution under growing pressure in an era of polarized politics and changing media viewing habits.

“I guess I have to,” he said. “Because I think they defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it.”

The president’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, sent the threat to the BBC over the way a documentary edited his Jan. 6, 2021, speech before a mob of his followers stormed the U.S. Capitol. The letter demanded an apology to the president and a “full and fair” retraction of the documentary along with other “false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading or inflammatory statements” about Trump.

If the BBC does not comply with the demands by 5 p.m. EST Friday, then Trump will enforce his legal rights, the letter said.

The row centers on an edition of the BBC’s flagship current affairs series “Panorama,” titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

The third-party production company that made the film spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.”

Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

BBC Chairman Samir Shah apologized Monday for the misleading edit that he said gave “the impression of a direct call for violent action.”

In addition to Davie’s resignation, the news chief Deborah Turness quit Sunday over accusations of bias and misleading editing.

Pylas writes for the Associated Press.

Nov. 11 (UPI) — President Donald Trump mentioned political correctness, President Joe Biden and renaming Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery after laying a wreath for the holiday.

Trump said he plans to rename the holiday celebrated on Nov. 11 as “Victory Day for World War I.”

“You know, I was recently at an event and I saw France was celebrating Victory Day, but we didn’t,” he said. “And I saw France was celebrating another Victory Day for World War II, and other countries were celebrating. They were all celebrating.

“We’re the one that won the wars. … And we could do for plenty of other wars, but we’ll start with those two. Maybe someday somebody else will add a couple of more, ’cause we won a lot of good ones.”

Veterans Day was originally named Armistice Day to celebrate the end of World War I. But it eventually became Veterans Day to celebrate all who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Since he took office, Trump has been on a renaming streak. He has renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” the Persian Gulf to the “Arabian Gulf,” Mount Denali to “Mount McKinley” and the Department of Defense to the “Department of War.”

“Under the Trump administration, we are restoring the pride and the winning spirit of the United States military,” he said at Arlington. “That’s why we have officially renamed the Department of Defense back to the original name, Department of War.”

He also complained about political correctness.

“We don’t like being politically correct, so we’re not going to be politically correct anymore,” Trump said. “From now on when we fight a war, we only fight for one reason: to win.”

He thanked American troops for their service.

“And we want to also say thank you for carrying America’s fate on your strong, very broad, and proud shoulders,” he said. “Each of you has earned the respect and the gratitude of our entire nation.

“We love you. We salute you, and we will never forget what you have done to keep America safe, sovereign, and free.”

Trump also used the speech to attack the Biden administration and its management of the Veterans Administration.

“And the other thing is, we fired thousands of people who didn’t take care of our great veterans,” he said. “They were sadists. They were sick people. They were thieves. They were everything you want to name. And we got rid of over 9,000 of them.

“And then, when Biden came in, he hired them back, many of them. But we got rid of them. And I think we got rid of them permanently. We replaced them with people who love our veterans, not people who are sick people.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs laid off more than 2,400 people in February.

LONDON — Britain’s government rallied to the defense of the BBC on Tuesday after allegations of bias from its critics and the threat of a lawsuit from President Trump over the way the broadcaster edited a speech he made after losing the 2020 presidential election

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the national broadcaster faces “challenges, some of its own making,” but is “by far the most widely used and trusted source of news in the United Kingdom.”

With critics in media and politics demanding an overhaul of the BBC’s funding and governance, Nandy said that “the BBC as an institution is absolutely essential to this country.

“At a time when the lines are being dangerously blurred between facts and opinions, news and polemic, the BBC stands apart,” she said in the House of Commons.

Trump threatens to sue

A lawyer for Trump is demanding a retraction, apology and compensation from the broadcaster over the allegedly defamatory sequence in a documentary broadcast last year.

Fallout from the documentary has already claimed the BBC’s top executive, Tim Davie, and head of news Deborah Turness, who both resigned over what the broadcaster called an “error of judgment.”

The BBC has apologized for misleading editing of a speech Trump delivered on Jan. 6, 2021, before a crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington.

Broadcast days before the November 2024 U.S. election, the documentary “Trump: A Second Chance?” spliced together three quotes from two sections of the speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

BBC chair Samir Shah said the broadcaster accepted “that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.”

The BBC has not yet formally responded to the demand from Florida-based Trump attorney Alejandro Brito that it “retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements,” apologize and “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused” by Friday, or face legal action for $1 billion in damages.

Nigel Huddleston, media spokesman for the opposition Conservative Party, said the BBC should “provide a fulsome apology to the U.S. president” to avoid legal action.

Legal experts say Trump is likely too late to sue the BBC in Britain, because a one-year deadline to file a defamation suit has expired. He could still bring a defamation claim in several U.S. states, and his lawyer cited Florida law in a letter to the BBC, but faces considerable legal hurdles.

An embattled national institution

The publicly funded BBC is a century-old national institution under growing pressure in an era of polarized politics and changing media viewing habits.

Funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds ($230) paid by all households who watch live TV or any BBC content, the broadcaster is frequently a political football, with conservatives seeing a leftist slant in its news output and some liberals accusing it of having a conservative bias.

Governments of both left and right have long been accused of meddling with the broadcaster, which is overseen by a board that includes both BBC nominees and government appointees.

Some defenders of the BBC allege that board members appointed under previous Conservative governments have been undermining the corporation from within.

Pressure on the broadcaster has been growing since the right-leaning Daily Telegraph published parts of a dossier compiled by Michael Prescott, who had been hired to advise the BBC on standards and guidelines. As well as the Trump edit, Prescott criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues and raised concerns of anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service.

Near the BBC’s London headquarters, some passersby said the scandal would further erode trust in a broadcaster already under pressure.

Amanda Carey, a semi-retired lawyer, said the editing of the Trump speech is “something that should never have happened.”

“The last few scandals that they’ve had, trust in the BBC is very much waning and a number of people are saying they’re going to refuse to pay the license (fee),” she said.

A growing number of people argue that the license fee is unsustainable in a world where many households watch little or no traditional TV.

Nandy said the government will soon start the once-a-decade process of reviewing the BBC’s governing charter, which expires at the end of 2027. She said the government would ensure the BBC is “sustainably funded (and) commands the public’s trust,” but did not say whether the license fee might be scaled back or scrapped.

Davie, who announced his resignation as BBC director-general on Sunday, acknowledged that “we have made some mistakes that have cost us.”

But, he added: “We’ve got to to fight for our journalism.”

Lawless writes for the Associated Press. AP journalist Kwiyeon Ha contributed to this story.

US president demands ‘full and fair’ retraction of BBC documentary that prompted resignation of two top executives.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn over an edited clip that has plunged the broadcaster into a public relations crisis and prompted the resignations of two top executives.

In a letter sent to the BBC, Trump’s legal team has demanded the retraction of “false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements” contained in a Panorama documentary aired a week before the 2024 US presidential election.

The letter, written by Trump lawyer Alejandro Brito, gives the BBC until Friday to provide a “full and fair” retraction of the documentary and “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused”, or face legal action in the US state of Florida.

“The BBC is on notice. PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY,” says the letter, which was widely circulated on social media.

The BBC did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

The documentary, titled Trump: A Second Chance?, has been mired in controversy since the leak of an internal memo that criticised producers for editing Trump’s remarks to make it appear that he had directly encouraged the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.

In the documentary, Trump is shown saying, “We fight like hell”, directly after telling supporters, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol”.

Trump had actually followed his comments about going to the Capitol with a remark about cheering on “our brave senators and congressmen and women”, and made his “fight like hell” comment nearly an hour later.

The memo, written by Michael Prescott, a former adviser to the BBC’s standards committee, also accused the broadcaster of suppressing critical coverage of transgender issues and displaying anti-Israel bias within the BBC Arabic service.

The BBC’s director-general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness, stepped down on Sunday amid the fallout of the controversy.

Trump welcomed the resignations in a post on Truth Social, accusing the BBC executives of being “corrupt” and “very dishonest people”.

BBC chair Samir Shah on Monday acknowledged that the clip was misleading and apologised for the “error of judgement”, but rejected claims that the broadcaster is institutionally biased.

Shah also said that the memo did not present “a full picture of the discussions, decisions and actions that were taken” by the standards board in response to concerns raised internally before the leak.

Trump’s legal threat is the latest in a flurry of actions he has taken to punish critical media.

Those moves include defamation claims against outlets including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and ABC News, funding cuts at NPR and PBS, and the removal of Associated Press journalists from the White House press pool.

LONDON — The BBC reported Monday that President Trump sent a letter threatening legal action over the way a speech he made was edited in a documentary aired by the British broadcaster.

The BBC’s top executive and its head of news both quit Sunday over accusations of bias and misleading editing of a speech Trump delivered on Jan. 6, 2021, before a crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington.

Asked about a letter from Trump threatening legal action over the incident, the BBC said in a statement on Monday that “we will review the letter and respond directly in due course.” It did not provide further details.

Earlier, Trump welcomed the resignations of BBC Director-General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness, saying the way his speech was edited was an attempt to “step on the scales of a Presidential Election.”

The hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — was broadcast as part of the BBC’s “Panorama” series days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

In a resignation letter to staff, Davie said: “There have been some mistakes made and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility.”

Turness said the controversy was damaging the BBC, and she quit “because the buck stops with me.”

Turness defended the organization’s journalists against allegations of bias.

“Our journalists are hardworking people who strive for impartiality, and I will stand by their journalism,” she said Monday. “There is no institutional bias. Mistakes are made, but there’s no institutional bias.”

BBC chairman Samir Shah apologized Monday for the broadcaster’s “error of judgment,” saying the broadcaster “accept[s] that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.”

Trump posted a link to a Daily Telegraph story about the speech-editing on his Truth Social network, thanking the newspaper “for exposing these Corrupt ‘Journalists.’ These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election.” He called that “a terrible thing for Democracy!”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reacted on X, posting a screen grab of an article headlined “Trump goes to war with ‘fake news’ BBC” beside another about Davie’s resignation, with the words “shot” and “chaser.”

Trump speech edited

Pressure on the broadcaster’s top executives has been growing since the right-leaning Daily Telegraph published parts of a dossier compiled by Michael Prescott, who had been hired to advise the BBC on standards and guidelines.

As well as the Trump edit, it criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues and raised concerns of anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service.

The “Panorama” episode showed an edited clip from the January 2021 speech in which Trump claimed the 2020 presidential election had been rigged. Trump is shown saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”

According to video and a transcript from Trump’s comments that day, he said:  “I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down. Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, 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. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.

“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

Trump used the “fight like hell” phrase toward the end of the speech, but without referencing the Capitol.

“We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said.

In a letter to Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Shah said the purpose of editing Trump’s words had been “to convey the message of the speech” so that viewers could understand how it had been received by Trump’s supporters and what was happening on the ground.

He said the program had not attracted “significant audience feedback” when it first aired but had drawn more than 500 complaints since Prescott’s dossier was made public.

Shah acknowledged in a BBC interview that “it would have been better to have acted earlier. But we didn’t.”

A national institution

The 103-year-old BBC faces greater scrutiny than other broadcasters — and criticism from its commercial rivals — because of its status as a national institution funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds ($230) paid by all households who watch live TV or any BBC content.

The broadcaster is bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial, and critics are quick to point out when they think it has failed. It’s frequently a political football, with conservatives seeing a leftist slant in its news output and some liberals accusing it of having a conservative bias.

It has also been criticized from all angles over its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. In February, the BBC removed a documentary about Gaza from its streaming service after it emerged that the child narrator was the son of an official in the Hamas-led government.

Governments of both left and right have long been accused of meddling with the broadcaster, which is overseen by a board that includes both BBC nominees and government appointees.

Some defenders of the BBC allege that members of the board appointed under previous Conservative governments have been undermining the corporation from within.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman, Tom Wells, said the center-left Labor Party government supports “a strong, independent BBC” and doesn’t think the broadcaster is biased.

“But it is important that the BBC acts to maintain trust and corrects mistakes quickly when they occur,” he said.

Lawless writes for the Associated Press.

Davie’s exit caps a week of attacks on Britain’s public broadcaster, with Trump’s press secretary describing BBC as ‘100 percent fake news’.

The director-general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has resigned after a row over the editing of a speech made by US President Donald Trump on the day of the 2021 attack on the United States Capitol.

Sunday’s joint resignations of Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness capped a turbulent week of accusations that the broadcaster edited a speech Trump made on January 6, 2021, to make it appear as if he encouraged the riots that followed his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

Davie said he took “ultimate responsibility” for mistakes made, saying that quitting his role at the helm of the public broadcaster after five years was “entirely my decision”.

“I have been reflecting on the very intense personal and professional demands of managing this role over many years in these febrile times, combined with the fact that I want to give a successor time to help shape the charter plans they will be delivering,” he said.

A documentary by flagship programme Panorama aired a week before last year’s US election, splicing together clips of Trump’s speech uttered at different points.

The edit made it seem as if Trump said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.”

Critics said it was misleading as it cut out a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

‘Buck stops with me’

Turness said the controversy about the Trump documentary “has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love”.

“As the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me,” she added.

Earlier on Sunday, UK Culture, Media and Sport Minister Lisa Nandy called the allegations “incredibly serious”, saying there is a “systemic bias in the way that difficult issues are reported at the BBC”.

Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands noted that the BBC has always been in a difficult position.

“It is pilloried by the right, who perceive it to be a hotbed of liberal bias. It’s pilloried by the left, who think that it kowtows to the establishment and pumps out government lines when it comes to things like Gaza, particularly, not holding the powerful to account as it should do as a broadcaster.”

Accusations of anti-Israel bias

The controversy, whipped up by UK right-wing media, reached the other side of the Atlantic with Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt describing the BBC as “100 percent fake news” and a “propaganda machine” on Friday.

The story broke on Tuesday when The Daily Telegraph cited a memo complied by Michael Prescott, a former member of the BBC’s editorial standards committee, which raised concerns over the Trump edit, as well as criticising perceived anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service.

On Saturday, the newspaper reported right-wing lawmaker Priti Patel, of the Conservative Party, demanded the UK Foreign Office review its funding of BBC Arabic through its grant for the BBC World Service, alleging “pro-Hamas and anti-Israel bias”.

The broadcaster has also been accused of giving Israel favourable coverage in its reporting of the war on Gaza, coming under criticism from its own staff.

Davie’s resignation was celebrated by Nigel Farage, leader of the populist hard-right Reform UK party, which is soaring in opinion polls.

“This is the BBC’s last chance. If they don’t get this right there will be vast numbers of people refusing to pay the licence fee,” Farage said on X.

BBC Director-General Tim Davie and BBC News Chief Executive Deborah Turness announced Sunday they are resigning from their positions.

The departures come as the British public broadcaster has faced criticism for its editing of President Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech before the Capitol riot and insurrection.

The BBC investigative series “Panorama,” in a broadcast a week ahead of the U.S. presidential election last year, featured an edited video of Trump’s speech.

Critics said that the way the speech was edited was misleading in that it cut out a section in which Trump said that he expected his supporters would demonstrate peacefully.

“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” Trump said in the speech, during which he also urged his supporters to “fight like hell.”

In a statement, Turness acknowledged the controversy around the “Panorama” broadcast, noting, “In public life leaders need to be fully accountable, and that is why I am stepping down. While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”

In a separate news release, Davie said, “In these increasingly polarized times, the BBC is of unique value and speaks to the very best of us. It helps make the UK a special place; overwhelmingly kind, tolerant and curious. Like all public organizations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable.

“While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision. Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as Director-General I have to take ultimate responsibility.”

Trump was impeached and criminally indicted over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and insurrection. The felony charges were dropped after he won the 2024 election, as U.S. Justice Department policy holds that a sitting president may not be criminally prosecuted.

Pressure on the broadcaster’s top executives has been growing since the Daily Telegraph newspaper published parts of a dossier complied by Michael Prescott, who had been hired to advise the BBC on standards and guidelines.

As well as the Trump edit, it criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues and raised concerns of anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service.

The 103-year-old BBC faces greater scrutiny than other broadcasters — and criticism from its commercial rivals — because of its status as a national institution funded through an annual license fee of $230 paid by all households with a television.

The BBC airs vast reams of entertainment and sports programming across multiple television and radio stations and online platforms — but it’s the BBC’s news output that is most often under scrutiny.

The broadcaster is bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial in its output, and critics are quick to point out when they think it has failed. It’s frequently a political football, with conservatives seeing a leftist slant in its news output and some liberals accusing it of having a conservative bias.

It has also been criticized from all angles over its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. In February, the BBC removed a documentary about Gaza from its streaming service after it emerged that the child narrator was the son of an official in the Hamas-led government.

The BBC shakeup comes as Trump has been extremely aggressive in pursuing lawsuits against U.S. media companies. Paramount Global forked over $16 million this summer after Trump complained about the editing of a Kamala Harris interview on CBS’ “60 minutes.” Last year, ABC News paid $16 million to settle Trump’s defamation lawsuit against anchor George Stephanopoulos.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LONDON — The head of the BBC resigned Sunday after criticism of the broadcaster’s editing of a speech by President Trump.

The BBC said that Director-General Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness both announced their resignations Sunday.

Britain’s public broadcaster had been criticized for its editing of a speech Trump made on Jan. 6, 2021, before a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn his election defeat.

Critics said that the way the speech was edited for a BBC documentary was misleading in that it cut out a section in which Trump said that he expected his supporters would demonstrate peacefully.

“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” Trump said in the speech, during which he also urged his supporters to “fight like hell.”

Trump was impeached and criminally indicted over his role in the ensuing Jan. 6 riot and insurrection. The felony charges were dropped after he won the 2024 election, as U.S. Justice Department policy holds that a sitting president may not be criminally prosecuted.

In a letter to staff, Davie said quitting the job after five years “is entirely my decision.”

“Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility,” Davie said.

He said that he was “working through exact timings with the Board to allow for an orderly transition to a successor over the coming months.”

Turness said that the controversy about the Trump documentary “has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC — an institution that I love. As the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, the buck stops with me.”

Pressure on the broadcaster’s top executives has been growing since the Daily Telegraph newspaper published parts of a dossier complied by Michael Prescott, who had been hired to advise the BBC on standards and guidelines.

As well as the Trump edit, it criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues and raised concerns of alleged anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service.