What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to hide his finances from the BBC, which he's suing over alleged damages to his finances.

Through his lawyers today, Trump demanded to be exempted from financial disclosures as part of a lawsuit he's filed against the BBC. Discovery is a routine part of any lawsuit that ensures both parties are fully disclosing all relevant information.

Just before the 2024 presidential election, the BBC released a documentary titled Trump: A Second Chance? It contained a clip of Trump speaking on January 6 to a crowd of people that included many of those who, just hours later, would be attacking a session of Congress in a desperate attempt to help Trump cling to power. In that scene, Trump's voice can be heard saying "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."

That was actually a splice of two quotes: in the first half, Trump is encouraging the crowd to support those members of Congress who supported him. In the second, he really is winding up the crowd for the riot that eventually happened. But edits like that aren't best practices for objective reporting, and after the newly re-elected Trump complained, the BBC apologized.

Trump then sued the BBC for $10,000,000,000. 

It's extremely unlikely that Trump could win the suit because, in simplest terms, nobody is required by law to only say things about him that he approves of. Painting public figures in an unflattering light, or even outright lying about them, isn't enough by itself to generate liability. (If it were, the thousands of people Trump has lied about and insulted would all have a case against him.) What's more, the underlying message of the BBC documentary—that Trump's statements in that rally were part of the criminal conspiracy he was indicted for—is absolutely true.

Trump also claimed that the documentary was meant to "interfere in and influence the election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment." Again, even if that were the intent, speech intended to change people's minds about the outcome of an election isn't a crime or grounds for a lawsuit—at least, not if it's not part of collusion with a hostile foreign government.  

One of Trump's claims is that the documentary cost his businesses money in lost revenue. In a predictable response, the BBC is now seeking legal discovery about his businesses' finances. In this case, to determine whether a TV show that aired in a foreign country six days before an election that has obviously made Trump's businesses suddenly more profitable, to the tune of billions of dollars, could possibly have had any effect on his bottom line. 

Other relevant information would include those businesses' tax returns, corporate structures, subsidiaries, offshore accounts, and other financial data. This is an extremely sensitive area for Trump: setting aside his tax cheating on his personal income and the 34 felony fraud charges he was convicted of in 2024, the Trump Organization has also been convicted of tax fraud and other crimes. Its CFO, Allen Weisselberg—also Trump's personal financial fixer—went to prison for his role in those crimes.

The BBC's requests were granted by the judge overseeing the trial last month. In ruling that discovery could proceed, the court noted that Trump had made broad and vague claims about the damage that the documentary did to his "brand," so discovery could be equally broad.

Of course, just because the BBC got access to Trump's financial information doesn't necessarily mean it would become public. Trump could seek an order from the judge sealing it. But pertinent information could still come out at trial, in the unlikely event Trump—who has spent most of the last 11 years stonewalling attempts to learn where his money is coming from—is willing to go forward now.

Trump also sued several American media companies for their supposed offenses against him, in what was transparently an extortion attempt, as the BBC suit may have been intended to be. Both ABC and CBS settled for token amounts rather than risk Trump openly using the powers of his office to do real harm against them.

Why does this matter?

• Using the powers of office to extort friendly coverage for the leader from the media is what dictators do. 

• Trump damaged his own reputation by trying to overturn the will of the American people who voted him out of office, not the people who were filming him do it. 

• You don't get to demand $10 billion every time someone hurts your feelings.