Donald Trump has opened up a new front in his war with the BBC, falsely claiming that the British broadcaster used AI to tamper with his January 6 speech.
Speaking to the press while hosting Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin at the White House, Trump embarked on a rant about the BBC after being asked about his $10B lawsuit against the corporation.
Trump is suing the BBC for the botched edit of a Panorama documentary, which misleadingly stitched together two parts of the president’s Capitol riots speech to make it appear as if he was inciting insurrection. The BBC is currently trying to get the case thrown out of a Florida court.
Now, Trump has claimed that the BBC “AI-generated” his words, an allegation that does not appear anywhere in the president’s lawsuit against the UK broadcasting network. Indeed, the lawsuit argued that the BBC “maliciously sought to fully mislead its viewers around the world by splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump’s speech.”
During his rant on Tuesday, Trump said: “They had me speaking something I never said, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it.” He added: “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.”
Trump continued: “I’m very proud of the term fake news, because it’s my term. I came up with it, but it’s no longer accurate. It really is. It’s corrupt, fraudulentness. It really is. It’s fraudulent. It’s not just fake. It’s beyond fake. It’s really criminal what they do.”
The president also criticized the BBC’s coverage of his war in Iran. “I watched them this morning for some crazy reason, and it was so inaccurate,” he said. “Their reporting of the war was unbelievable. We have decimated that country. And if you watch BBC, it’s almost like they’re fighting us to a draw. They’re fighting us to a draw.”
The BBC declined to comment on Trump’s remarks.
In a filing on Monday, the BBC “challenged jurisdiction” of the Florida court due to the fact that its Panorama documentary did not air in America.
“Put simply – the documentary was never aired in Florida – or the US,” said a BBC spokesperson. “It wasn’t available to watch in the US 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.”