US President Donald Trump says he will sue the BBC for up to US$5 billion ($8.8b) after the British broadcaster apologised for a misleading edit of one of his speeches but said it would not pay damages. 

“We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion and five billion dollars, probably sometime next week. I think I have to do it. They’ve even admitted that they cheated,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. 

Trump’s lawyers sent the BBC a letter on Tuesday accusing it of defaming the President with the video of the speech before the 2021 US Capitol riot and giving it until today to apologise and pay compensation. 

President Donald Trump’s team is threatening to sue the BBC as the UK broadcaster faces renewed scrutiny over its editing. Photo / Ben Stansall, AFP 

“The people of the UK are very angry about what happened, as you can imagine, because it shows the BBC is fake news,” Trump said today. 

He added that he planned to raise the BBC issue with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has backed the broadcaster’s independence while avoiding taking sides against Trump. 

“I’m going to call him over the weekend. He actually put a call in to me. He’s very embarrassed,” Trump said. 

On Tuesday, the BBC apologised for giving the impression in a documentary aired last year that Trump had directly urged “violent action” just before the assault on the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021. 

The firestorm over the video edit has led the BBC director-general and the organisation’s top news executive to resign. 

The BBC said its chairman Samir Shah had sent “a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president’s speech”. 

However, it added: “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.” 

– Agence France-Presse