Donald Trump has delivered a nonsensical and unhinged rant taking aim at the BBC, which he described as ‘corrupt, fraudulent and criminal.’
Speaking in the White House on Tuesday, Trump was asked about his $10bn defamation case against the corporation over its editing of his speech in a Panorama documentary.
The president immediately falsely claimed he had not said the words featured in the documentary and the footage from his January 6 speech was ‘AI-generated.’
“They had me speaking something I never said,” Trump told reporters.
Trump then took aim at BBC News for its coverage of the war in Iran, labelling the broadcaster “fake news.”
“I watched them this morning for some crazy reason and it was so inaccurate,” he continued. “Their reporting of the war was unbelievable.
“We have decimated that country [Iran] and if you watch BBC it’s almost like they’re fighting us to a draw – they’re not fighting us to a draw!
“It was very inaccurate news, it was fake news.”
After saying he was “very proud” of the term fake news, Trump labelled the BBC “corrupt, fraudulent news,” adding: “It’s beyond fake, it’s really criminal what they do.”
Right after saying this though, he then admitted “I don’t know much about BBC other than what took place” with the Panorama controversy.
When he finally got round to answering the reporter’s initial question about the defamation case, Trump said: “We brought a lawsuit against them. They admit they’re guilty but we’ll see how it comes out.”
The BBC has not admitted any guilt in terms of the defamation case and has officially filed to have it dismissed.
Whilst the corporation has apologised for the splicing together of two separate parts of Trump’s speech in the Panorama doc, it has made clear it will “robustly defend the case against us.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “Put simply — the documentary was never aired in Florida — or the U.S. It wasn’t available to watch in the U.S. on iPlayer, online or any other streaming platforms including BritBox and BBC Select. We have therefore challenged jurisdiction of the Florida court and filed a motion to dismiss the President’s claim.”
Trump’s lawsuit claims people in Florida may have viewed the programme by using a virtual private network (VPN). In response, the BBC said it “prohibits the unauthorised use of VPNs to watch iPlayer from outside the UK and takes active steps to enforce this ban.”
Reuters reports that the BBC’s motion to dismiss also argues that Trump ““cannot ​plausibly claim that the documentary ​harmed his reputation” because he went on to win the election after the documentary aired.