Fact Check: Did Denmark play 'Send in the Clowns' to mock Rubio at the Greenland deal?
WASHINGTON, DC: A viral video has sparked claims that Denmark mocked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio by playing the song 'Send in the Clowns' as he arrived for a Greenland-related ceremony.
The clip spread online as tensions between the United States, Denmark, and Greenland remained high over the future of the Arctic territory. Let's fact-check the claim.
Claim: Danish officials played 'Send in the Clowns' when Marco Rubio arrived
LMFAO - Denmark has background music on waiting for Trump that had the lyrics "send in the clowns" The camera then finds Marco Rubio and zooms in. 🤣🤣 https://t.co/ior3TWVsoh
— Donk Media ♻️™ (@donkoclock) September 22, 2026
The claim circulated online in September 2026 that Danish officials played the song 'Send in the Clowns' when Marco Rubio arrived for the signing of a US-Denmark-Greenland agreement.
The claim spread after Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen signed the agreement in New York City on September 22, 2026. The deal aimed to ease months of diplomatic tensions over Greenland.
A Threads user wrote, “Listen, I'm not gonna say it's perfection, but the Danish delegation having ‘Send in the Clowns’ playing on the playlist as Marco Rubio entered to sign Denmark/Greenland stuff is very, very well played.”
Other users shared similar claims on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky. Some posts included a video that appeared to show Rubio entering the room while 'Send in the Clowns' played.
The posts suggested that Danish officials deliberately chose the song to embarrass or insult him.
Two separate recordings of the September 22 signing ceremony, filmed from different camera angles, confirmed that 'Send in the Clowns' played around the time Rubio and the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark, Mute B Egede and Lars Lokke Rasmussen, entered the conference room.
The song ended before Trump, Frederiksen and Nielsen were announced and entered the room.
Fact Check: The claim is misleading
The claims are misleading. A spokesperson for Denmark's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in an email on September 22, 2026, “Denmark was not involved in selecting the music for the signing ceremony.”
This statement suggests that the choice of ‘Send in the Clowns’ was likely coincidental or accidental.
Officials from all three countries appeared in the frame while the song played, including the parts that mentioned clowns. If one delegation had selected the song to mock another, the scene did not clearly support that interpretation.
Trump, Frederiksen, and Nielsen also entered the stage immediately after the song ended. The three leaders then appeared together during the ceremony. This further weakens the claim that one delegation used the song to insult another leader publicly.
The Greenland agreement followed months of tensions over Trump's calls for greater US control of Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
In January 2026, the Trump administration did not rule out using military force to gain control of the Arctic island, raising concerns among Denmark and other NATO members about the alliance's unity.
