Salman Rushdie on 'cowardly' BBC decision to cut Trump criticism from Reith Lecture
Author Salman Rushdie, who The News Agents describe as a man who "spent probably half of his life under the threat of death" discusses his new book, the root cause of problems in UK society, and the BBC’s “dumb” decision to “pre-censor” itself.
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In brief…
- Sir Salman Rushdie tells The News Agents how an attempt on his life in 2022 changed his perspective on life, not death, and how he focused that into a new novel.
- Rushie says the seriousness of his injuries made him feel like he had been given “another act” of his life.
- He discusses the increase in division and violence in modern society, saying that what was considered unacceptable once, is now the norm.
What’s the story?
Novelist Salman Rushdie has said the BBC's censoring of a Danish author and historian to remove criticism of Donald Trump highlights "stupidity" within the broadcaster.
Rutger Bregman recorded a Reith Lecture for the BBC in October 2025, in which he referred to President Trump as "the most openly corrupt president in American history”.
When his address was broadcast on 25 November, the line had been removed, prompting an angry – and public – response from Bregman.
It comes after a legal threat from the US president over an edit in an episode of Panorama, which altered the content of a speech given ahead of the 2020 January 6 insurrection in Washington.
Speaking with The News Agents about his new book, The Eleventh Hour, Rushdie says "this kind of foolishness" would not have happened five or ten years ago, describing the BBC's edit of the Reith Lecture as "pre-censorship", and "cowardly".
"The BBC continues to be really stupid – and there's no cure for stupidity," Rushdie says.
"It's dumb, and it gives ammunition to people who would like to take down Public Broadcasting.
"I think the BBC is an enormously valuable institution, but it seems to have done some dumb things of late."
‘I had a good look at death – it focuses the mind’
The News Agents describes Rushdie as a man who has "spent probably half of his life under the threat of death" – having a fatwa issued in 1989 by Iran's Supreme leader at the time, due to perceived "blasphemy against Islam" in his book, The Satanic Verses.
In 2022 he was stabbed repeatedly during a lecture in New York, costing him the sight in one eye.
"I had a pretty close look at the end, and that focuses the mind," Rushdie says of The Eleventh Hour.
"I wanted the book not to be ponderous. I didn't want it to be a dark, gloomy, 'we're all gonna die' kind of book.
"I wanted it to be kind of playful, mischievous and funny while dealing with this very serious thing that's going to come to us all."
The 2022 attack changed his perspective of life, he adds, rather than that of death.
"When you have a narrow escape like that, it gives you a sense of the value of the days," Rushdie says.
"You're given another act, another spell of life – which in many ways was unlikely, you know, because of the seriousness of the injuries.
In the years since, he says the greatest lesson has been to try to use the time he has.
"I've tried not to waste time, but I think that the urgency has increased," Rushdie adds.
‘Brexit to blame for Britain’s problems – but no politician wants to talk about it’
Rushdie says the world is far more violent today than it was when he was issued with the fatwa in 1989, and that what seemed exceptional then, doesn't now.
This is in-part caused, he adds, by deep divisions in society, which can lead to extreme violence – and this is a topic he addresses in his new work.
"One of the things I tried to write about in this book is a fracturing in society, where people take up very embedded, entrenched positions on both sides of the fracture," he says.
"The fracture is very deep and very wide, and it's actually quite hard to see how you repair it."
The most worrying thing, he adds, is the growth of the right-wing among young people – referencing not only the US, but also youth across Europe voting for far-right politicians and parties in recent years.
And while the UK certainly isn't immune to that, he says the country's biggest problems can be traced back to Brexit – although nobody wants to admit it.
"The most obvious cause for Britain's difficulties is Brexit" he says.
"It was an enormous shift in the economic structure of this country, and its consequences explain, not everything, but a lot of the trouble the country's in.
"Yet nobody of any political party is willing to say that."
He also says very few people in politics want to stand up for the benefits immigration can bring to communities across the UK and beyond.
The idea that migrants dilute national identity is "a racist argument".
"All societies in the world are plural and multiple," he says.
"The idea of a monoculture is out of the window in the age of movement, as so many people move across the world for so many reasons.
"Every great city in the world, including London, is evidence of that kind of multifariousness. A lot of the richness of these cities comes from that diversity."