The BBC has admitted in an internal memo presented to its board in October 2025 that it misrepresented U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments, falsely claiming he suggested former Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) should be shot.
This admission followed a leak of an internal document authored by Peter Johnston, the broadcaster’s director of the editorial complaints unit, which was shared after independent adviser Michael Prescott raised concerns about potential bias.
Sarah Smith, BBC News’s North America Editor, described Trump as having been accused of being “petty, vindictive, and a wannabe tyrant” for allegedly suggesting one of his political opponents face guns with them trained on her face during a Six O’Clock News segment ahead of the November 2024 U.S. presidential election.
The BBC’s misreporting was never publicly corrected. Additionally, the network has faced scrutiny over its editing of a Trump speech to imply he incited violence resulting in the January 6 Capitol riots—a claim the program’s producers defended—and this incident contributed to the resignations of executives Tim Davie and Deborah Turness.
