Marco Rubio says the Greenland deal permanently addresses U.S. national security concerns at zero taxpayer cost
U.S. Secretary of State, in a statement to Fox News Digital and in a post on his official @SecRubio X account
“This historic deal is a huge win for the United States and the American people. Thanks to President Trump’s vision and leadership, this historic agreement permanently guarantees U.S. security interests in the Arctic at zero cost to the U.S. taxpayer. Greenland will forever be part of the strategic defense area of North America and exclude any adversary from it and the surrounding area. This deal permanently and completely addresses our national security concerns in Greenland.”
Source and context
Original post
About this source
Read through the api.fxtwitter.com status endpoint. The post quotes Trump’s X repost and carries the same three statements Fox News Digital printed at 5:19 PM EDT; it does not contain the two Fox-only lines about Denmark’s and Greenland’s means to defend Greenland.
Reporting
About this source
Fox News Digital exclusive; Rubio is quoted as telling Fox News Digital. Read via curl; JSON-LD datePublished and dateModified are both 2026-09-18T17:19:56-04:00. The statement is printed in two pairs of sentences separated by an attribution tag and by an embedded related-link headline ('DENMARK VOWS TO DEFEND GREENLAND AFTER TRUMP REITERATES US SHOULD CONTROL TERRITORY'), which is not part of the statement. A further quotation attributed to Rubio in this article, that Denmark and Greenland lack the financial means to defend Greenland, appears only in Fox after a paragraph sourced to 'a second official', is not in his X post or in NBC's or the BBC's copies of his statement, and is not used.
Reporting
About this source
Read via curl; JSON-LD shows published 2026-09-18 22:37 UTC and last modified 2026-09-19 08:15 UTC. NBC quotes the last two sentences of Rubio's statement and attributes them to 'a statement' by Rubio, and says the agreement's full text has not been released. Used as independent corroboration of the wording and of the unpublished text.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Trump had announced the agreement on Truth Social earlier on September 18, 2026, saying it gives the United States permanent control over security in Greenland. Fox News Digital published Rubio's statement at 5:19 PM EDT, alongside a senior U.S. official's description of the deal.
After the quotation
Rubio posted the same text on X at 11:17 PM EDT, quoting Trump's X announcement. Frederiksen and Greenland's leaders issued statements on Friday, and NBC News reported that the agreement's full text had not been released.
How this statement is classified
Case context: Trump’s “permanent control” description of the announced U.S.-Denmark-Greenland security agreement
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
The case's fixed reference point is Trump's description of the not-yet-signed agreement as giving the United States permanent control over security and all other needs in Greenland, at no cost and with adversaries excluded. Rubio calls the agreement a huge win, says it permanently guarantees U.S. security interests at zero cost to the taxpayer, says Greenland will exclude any adversary, and credits Trump's leadership, which endorses the deal on the terms Trump and Rubio describe. The closest competing label is challenges_characterization, because Rubio frames the deal as guaranteeing U.S. security interests and a strategic defense area rather than repeating Trump's word control. That loses because he does not dispute or correct Trump's description and instead endorses the same features: permanence, zero cost and exclusion of adversaries.
- Recorded on
- Published here
Trump’s “permanent control” description of the announced U.S.-Denmark-Greenland security agreement
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
Read the full case“I'm looking forward to the ink being dry on the new agreement with the USA. And to us being able to see the content. Until then, I'm skeptical. I don't have much confidence in Trump.”Read statement
“We will have to wait with that until the agreement is published next week. So I don't have many comments on that.”Read statement
“Next week could be a good week… For Greenland, Denmark and the USA alike. Where a long period of uncertainty is hopefully replaced by a binding agreement that strengthens security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic and thus also our shared security in NATO and Europe - with respect for the Kingdom's red lines.”Read statement