US president Donald Trump has launched a scathing attack on the BBC, branding it “corrupt, fraudulent news” and alleging the broadcaster used artificial intelligence to edit his speech.
This comes as the corporation recently filed a motion to dismiss Mr Trump’s $10bn (£7.5bn) defamation lawsuit.
The legal action centres on an edited version of a Panorama documentary.
The programme drew significant criticism last year following a 2024 broadcast, which was accused of creating the impression that Mr Trump had incited his supporters to storm the Capitol building in 2021, subsequent to his election defeat to Joe Biden.
The controversy led to the resignation of BBC director-general Tim Davie, amidst allegations that Panorama had selectively edited Mr Trump’s remarks.
BBC chair Samir Shah apologised on behalf of the broadcaster over an “error of judgement” and accepted that the editing of the 2024 documentary gave “the impression of a direct call for violent action”.
Asked about his lawsuit on Tuesday, Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that footage had been edited and claimed that AI had been used to generate clips.
“They put words in my mouth, and they said I said some pretty bad things, and I didn’t say them, it was AI-generated.
“And I said, ‘I never said that’. Some of my people said, ‘Wow, that was pretty bad stuff you said’, I said, ‘What did I say?’
“I’m pretty good at this stuff. I mean, if you can go through years of these press conferences and you’re the popular president of the United States that won in a landslide, that won all seven swing states, that got record numbers of votes – I guess I’m OK at this stuff.
“I said, ‘I never said that’, and then we found out it was AI-generated.”
Mr Trump also criticised the BBC’s coverage of the US war on Iran as “so inaccurate” and “unbelievable”.
“We have decimated that country, and if you watch BBC it’s almost like they’re fighting us to a draw.”
He added: “It was very inaccurate news, it was fake news.
“I’m very proud of the term ‘fake news’ because it was my term, I came up with it – but it’s no longer accurate.
“It really is corrupt, fraudulent news. It really is – it’s fraudulent.
“It’s not just fake, it’s beyond fake. It’s really criminal what they do.”
Asked about the lawsuit against the broadcaster, Mr Trump said he would “see how it comes out”.
The BBC has been contacted for comment.
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