It is easy to forget that Brexit provided an electrifying boost to Donald Trump; Britain’s 2016 referendum came five months before he defeated Hillary Clinton. The success of one anti-establishment insurgency was a demonstration effect for another. “They will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT,” Trump tweeted. “Mr Brexit” did not catch on. But the ties between Trump and the British right were umbilical even before the UK’s vote to leave Europe. A decade later, they are intertwined.
Nobody should be surprised that Trump has the BBC in his sights. That Britain’s broadcaster gave Trump a gift-wrapped pretext — its dishonestly spliced piece of editing about his role in the January 6 Capitol Hill storming — is clear. Yet he has ample motive to go after the British right’s most relished target. Trump has three reasons to sue the BBC, the first of which is money.
He is asking for between $1bn and $5bn in compensation, although the BBC has apologised and lost its top two executives over it. Moreover, he wants the case adjudicated in Florida. It would be a shock but no surprise were a Florida court to accept jurisdiction over a foreign broadcaster’s programme that few Americans saw. Though English law is generous to libel suits, this one’s 12-month statute of limitations period has elapsed. Which means that Trump would be lucky to get any money out of the British taxpayer.