Alison McGovern speaks to media about BBC crisis as culture secretary due to address MPs in attempt to contain fallout

On the Today programme, Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, a rightwing news organisation in the US, and someone who has been a friend of Donald Trump for years, was interviewed about Trump’s threat to sue the BBC. Here are the main points he made.

Ruddy said that, if the BBC were to fight the case in the Florida courts, they would probably win. He explained:

The fact is, I’m from the state of Florida. I’m very familiar with the Florida libel laws.

I have no doubt the BBC misrepresented what the president said. And that’s pretty clear. I think everybody agrees, otherwise you wouldn’t have had those resignations.

But Ruddy also acknowledged that other media organisations sued by Trump had decided to settle rather contest his claims. “What’s happening is that a lot of media companies would prefer not to go through the media spectacle of all this,” he said.

Ruddy said that, when Trump forced other media organisations to settle, he viewed that as proving his case that they were peddling “fake news”. Referring to the CBS and ABC lawsuits (see 9.22am), Ruddy said:

I think he sees these as victories … He sees this as legitimising his claims that there’s fake news, that the news is out to get him.

Ruddy said Trump regarded the BBC resignations announced on Sunday as a victory.

I congratulate that the BBC and people resigned, and they were held accountable. In American media organisation oftentimes you don’t see that and there’s not a sense of accountability.

The president sees this as a big victory for him in his claim the media is out to get him.

Ruddy said he thought there was a good chance that Trump would go ahead with his threat to sue the BBC.

He may very well sue the BBC because he’s had a winning record on bringing these suits.

Ruddy said that the fact that the BBC is funded by the taxpayer would not deter Trump.

I think that he he feels that there are very big wealth funded organisation and if they did him wrong then and he could be compensated for that. And I think he sees that as a win for him and a win for truth.

Ruddy said he did not think Trump would worry about legal action damaging his relationship with the UK government.

I do think that it [legal action] doesn’t hurt his relationship [with the UK government]. He has a very good relationship with Keir Starmer. He’s certainly widely respects King Charles.

He does not see this as impinging at all on the very good relationship that he has with Britain. I was with him at Windsor Castle, when he was there [for the state visit]. I think he and Melania felt that was one of the high points of his presidency so far.

The BBC is going to be thriving and I support everyone on the team.