US President Donald Trump has said he will take legal action against the BBC over how his speech was edited by Panorama, after the corporation apologised but refused to compensate him.

Trump told reporters on board Air Force One on Friday evening, “We’ll sue them for anywhere between $1 billion [£759 million] and $5 billion, probably sometime next week.”

On Thursday, the BBC said the edit of the 6 January 2021 speech had unintentionally given “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action” and said it would not be broadcast again.

The corporation apologized to the president but stated that it would not provide cash compensation.

A examination of public court record databases revealed that no lawsuits had been filed in federal or state court in Florida as of Friday evening.

 In a separate interview on Saturday, filmed before his remarks on Air Force One, Trump stated that he had a “obligation” to sue the BBC, adding, “If you don’t do it, you don’t stop it from happening again with other people.”

 He described the edit as “egregious” and “worse than the Kamala thing,” referring to a disagreement he had with CBS about an interview with his 2024 presidential opponent Kamala Harris on the 60 Minutes show.

In July of this year, US media giant Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million (£13.5 million) to resolve a legal dispute over the interview.

Sir Craig Oliver, former BBC editor and ex-director of politics and communications for former Prime Minister David Cameron, told BBC Today that the situation is a “nightmare” for the public broadcaster.

“The problem is that public money could be spent fighting this or settling this,” Sir Craig said, adding that Trump doesn’t “understand the BBC, how it is funded, or how it works”.

The dispute originates from Panorama’s editing of Trump’s address on January 6, 2021, for a program airing in October 2024. During his speech, he urged supporters, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”

More almost 50 minutes into the address, he said, “And we fight.” “We fight like hell!”

In the Panorama segment, he says: “We’re going to stroll down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fought. “We fight like hell!”

The resignations of BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness were prompted by the controversy surrounding the editing of Trump’s address.

The BBC’s Corrections and Clarifications section, issued on Thursday evening, stated that the Panorama episode had been reviewed following complaints of how Trump’s address was edited.

“We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action,” according to a statement.

BBC lawyers have written to Trump’s legal team, a BBC spokesperson said this week.

“BBC chair Samir Shah has separately 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 on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme,” the spokespersons stated.

Their statement continued: “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.”

In its response to Trump’s legal team, the BBC outlined five primary reasons why it did not believe it had a case to answer.

First, it stated that the BBC did not have the rights to distribute the Panorama episode on its US stations and did not do so.

When the documentary was made available on BBC iPlayer, only UK audiences could watch it.

Second, it stated that the documentary did not affect Trump, as he was re-elected shortly thereafter.

Third, it stated that the clip was not intended to mislead but rather to condense a lengthy speech, and that the edit was done without malice.

Fourth, it stated that the clip was never intended to be considered in isolation. Rather, it was 12 seconds of an hour-long presentation that also featured many voices in support of Trump.

Finally, an opinion on an issue of public interest, as well as political expression, is severely protected by defamation laws in the United States.

The BBC’s apology came just hours after the Daily Telegraph unearthed a second similarly edited tape, which will air on Newsnight in 2022.