Social media posts claim that Denmark deliberately played the song “Send in the Clowns” before US President Donald Trump joined Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen for a deal-signing ceremony at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The claim was shared on X, Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram.
On X, for example, one post garnered more than 1.3 million views.
The clip shared shows a camera’s close-up on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio while the song’s lyrics include the line: “Where are the clowns? Send in the clowns. Don’t bother, they’re here.”
While most posts claimed that Denmark chose the song, one Instagram post went further, stating: “Denmark just humiliated Marco Rubio at the United Nations!”
However, none of these claims is true.
There is no evidence that Danish officials or the media selected the music played before the event on 22 September.
The signing ceremony sealed a new security deal between the US, Denmark and Greenland, following months of tension over the US president’s push to take control of the self-governing Danish territory.
The Cube, Euronews’ fact-checking team, reached out to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which said Denmark was not involved in the choice of music during the signing.
Yet, “Send in the Clowns” was nevertheless one of the tracks played before the event as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in the room.
The song, written by Stephen Sondheim for the 1973 musical “A Little Night Music”, was performed by Judy Collins.
A replay on UN TV shows the song was played moments before Trump entered to sign the agreement with Frederiksen and Nielsen.
The US Mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US-Denmark-Greenland deal
The agreement closed after 10 months of negotiations and sought to end a diplomatic standoff triggered by Trump’s repeated demands to take control of Greenland and refusal to rule out military force.
The US will be permitted to expand its military presence on Greenland through the modernisation and enlargement of its current Pituffik Space Base and the establishment of new defence areas, including at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig.
The agreement will also allow the US “free access to and movement between” defence areas in Greenland, “including the Territorial Waters, by land, air and sea”, according to the terms of the deal, shared online by the Danish Foreign Ministry.
US aircraft may also fly over and land in any territory on the island.
The US reportedly operated 17 military facilities and more than 10,000 troops on Greenland at the height of the Cold War.
It currently operates just one base on the island, the Pituffik Space Base – the US Department of Defense’s northernmost installation.
According to the US Space Force, Pituffik is used for missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance missions.
In a statement, Frederiksen said the deal “strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic Area”, while Nielsen said it was “to the benefit of us all”.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also welcomed the new deal.
On X, he wrote that the agreement enhances the collective security of NATO members and supports a safer and more stable future for them all.
Greenland is a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Located between the Arctic and North America, it is also regarded as strategically important to the US.