Trump says he will likely sue the BBC for up to $5 billion over edited speech

US President Donald Trump has said he would likely sue the BBC for as much as $5 billion after the British broadcaster admitted it wrongly edited a video of a speech he gave but insisted there was no legal basis for his claim.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been plunged into its biggest crisis in decades after two senior leaders resigned following accusations of bias, including over the editing of Trump's speech on January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol.

Trump's lawyers had initially set a Friday deadline for the BBC to retract its documentary or face a lawsuit for "no less" than $1 billion. They also demanded an apology and compensation for what they called "overwhelming reputational and financial harm," according to a letter seen by Reuters.

The BBC, which has admitted its editing of Trump's remarks was an "error of judgement," sent a personal apology to Trump on Thursday but said it would not rebroadcast the documentary and rejected the defamation claim.

"We'll sue them for anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to Florida for the weekend. "I think I have to do that, I mean they've even admitted that they cheated," he said. "They changed the words coming out of my mouth."

Trump said he had not spoken with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with whom he has built a solid relationship, about the issue, but that he planned to call him this weekend. He said Starmer had tried to reach him, and was "very embarrassed" by the incident.

The documentary, which aired on the BBC's flagship Panorama news programme, spliced together three video excerpts from Trump's speech, creating the impression he was inciting the January 6, 2021, riot. His lawyers said this was "false and defamatory".

'BEYOND FAKE, THIS IS CORRUPT'

In an interview with British right-leaning TV channel GB News, Trump said the edit was "impossible to believe" and compared it to election interference.

"I made a beautiful statement, and they made it into a not beautiful statement," he said. "Fake news was a great term, except it's not strong enough. This is beyond fake, this is corrupt."

Trump said the BBC's apology was not enough.

"When you say it's unintentional, I guess if it's unintentional, you don't apologise," he said. "They clipped together two parts of the speech that were nearly an hour apart. It's incredible to depict the idea that I had given this aggressive speech which led to riots. One was making me into a bad guy, and the other was a very calming statement."