Washington DC - President Donald Trump said he had an "obligation" to sue the BBC for a misleading edit of one of his speeches, but stopped short of announcing legal action in a Fox News interview aired on Tuesday.

Trump's lawyers threatened the British network with a billion-dollar lawsuit on Monday, according to a letter seen by AFP, as the BBC apologized for giving the impression the Republican had explicitly urged "violent action" ahead of the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

In the Fox News interview, which was recorded Monday, Trump was asked if he planned to sue the BBC.

"I guess I have to, why not?" he replied. "I think I have an obligation to do it because you can't allow people to do that."

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"They defrauded the public and they've admitted it."

Britain "is supposedly one of our great allies," and "the government has a chunk of that one," Trump added, referring to the BBC.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government has been publicly backing the broadcaster, while trying not to antagonize Trump.

The BBC director general and its top news executive resigned Sunday over the controversy.

The organization has said that it would "review" the letter from Trump's legal team.

Trump has launched a number of lawsuits to stifle media criticism since returning to power in January.

The BBC documentary featuring the edited Trump speech was aired last year.

It appeared he had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them and "fight like hell," leaving out a section of his speech that included the line: "We're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."

A US House committee found Trump had intentionally spread lies claims about fraud in the 2020 election and provoked his supporters into attacking the Capitol.