A Dutch historian has accused the British Broadcasting Corporation of caving to fears about being sued by U.S. President Donald Trump and removing a critical line from a recent lecture.
Rutger Bregman released a video Nov. 25 detailing his recent experience delivering the first of his Reith Lectures, a prestigious annual address carried by the BBC.
“They removed the sentence in which I describe Donald Trump as ‘the most openly corrupt president in American history,’” he reported. “This line was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre. I was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC.”
Rutger Bregman speakiing in the video
Attacking media has been a hallmark of Trump’s persona for decades, but he has ramped up the attacks with recent lawsuits and threats of lawsuits against various U.S.-based media outlets.
The BBC already is under attack from Trump, who has accused Britain’s national media company of misrepresenting his word by the way one of his speeches on January 6 was edited for a program called Panorama. Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for $5 billion. That threat already led to the resignations of the BBCs director general, Tim Davie, and its news chief, Deborah Turness.
Still, the BBC claims its edit did not defame Trump and has said it is not seeking to settle with him, according to The Guardian.
This fits a pattern of Trump using his persona and wealth to threaten media outlets who do not portray him as he desires. In November 2024, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS, its parent company Paramount Global and the show 60 Minutes. He alleged the program committed “election interference” and “fraud” by deceptively editing an October 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The complaint was that 60 Minutes favored his opponent by giving her special treatment.
In July 2025, Paramount settled the lawsuit for $16 million as it was seeking a major business merger that required the Trump administration’s sign-off, a move that drew criticism from press advocacy groups and concern from CBS News staff over journalistic independence.
In late October this year, Trump participated in a 60 Minutes interview with Norah O’Donnell. During this interview, he threatened to “walk away” and repeated false claims the 2020 election was rigged.
Since being elected president the first time in 2016, Trump has not won a court settlement against a media company. In multiple cases, however, media companies have reached out-of-court settlements rather than endure the expense of a trial. Examples include:
- In December 2024, ABC News agreed to a $15 million settlement, plus an additional $1 million in legal fees, over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos who incorrectly claimed a jury had found Trump liable for “rape” (the jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, which is a legal distinction in New York law).
- In September 2025, YouTube agreed to a $24.5 million settlement over the suspension of Trump’s account following the January 6 Capitol riots.
- In January 2025, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle a similar lawsuit regarding the suspension of his social media accounts.
- In February 2025, X (owned by Elon Musk) reportedly agreed to pay $10 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over his account suspension.
Including the CBS settlement, that amounts to $91.5 million in out-of-court settlements Trump has profited from by filing lawsuits most media scholars believe would not have won settlements at trial.
That amounts to $91.5 million in out-of-court settlements Trump has profited from by filing lawsuits most media scholars believe would not have won settlements at trial.
It is in this context that Bregman says the BBC removed a “key line” from his address broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
“I wish this wasn’t true but the BBC has decided to censor the opening lecture of a series they invited me to give,” he says in the video. “They deleted the sentence in which I described Donald Trump as ‘the most openly corrupt president in American history.’ That line is gone. It has been removed from the version broadcast this morning on BBC Radio 4.
“Last Wednesday, I was told the sentence was being discussed with U.S. lawyers and at the highest levels inside the BBC. For days, they couldn’t give me an answer. Yesterday they finally did and the irony could not be bigger because this lecture — titled “A Time of Monsters” — is exactly about the cowardice of today’s elites, about universities, corporations and, yes, media networks bending the knee to authoritarianism.
“I find it hard to express how shocked I am by the BBC’s decision because this is not just another media organization and these lectures … have for more than 75 years been one of the BBC’s most important public platforms for big ideas and free expression. This should concern everyone left, right, center. Of course, people can disagree with the things I said but to commission a lecture, take it through the full editorial process record it before 500 people in the BBC Radio Theater in the heart of London and then censor it out of fear — well that is something entirely different.
“And let me be clear: This sentence wasn’t a baseless accusation. It was a defensible and plausible statement. It’s well known that Donald Trump and his family are personally profiting from the presidency to a degree we haven’t seen before. According to a major investigation in The New Yorker published last August, the total personal gains already exceed roughly $3.5 billion from real estate deals to meme coins.”
While praising the journalists who work for the BBC, Bregman called out the upper executives who he said are living in fear.
“It’s about something much bigger when institutions start censoring themselves because they’re scared of those in power. That is the moment we all need to pay attention. Democracies don’t collapse overnight; they gradually erode in acts of fear. Let’s not be afraid to name what’s happening and let’s not be afraid to tell the truth.”
The Guardian quoted an unnamed BBC spokesperson who said: “All of our programs are required to comply with the BBC’s editorial guidelines, and we made the decision to remove one sentence from the lecture on legal advice.”
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