Martin Lidegaard, asked what Trump's 'permanent control' wording means, says it must wait until the text is published
Martin LidegaardDanish Minister for Business and Competitiveness and political leader of Radikale Venstre, in an on-camera interview with TV 2
Asked by TV 2 in a video interview what Trump's description of permanent U.S. control over security and all other needs in Greenland means, Danish Business and Competitiveness Minister Martin Lidegaard said that will have to wait until the agreement is published next week and that he had few comments on it. The quotation is our English translation of his Danish answer; TV 2's printed rendering of the answer is worded differently.
“We will have to wait with that until the agreement is published next week. So I don't have many comments on that.”
Interview
Original text
Official statement
Reporting
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Trump’s “permanent control” description of the announced U.S.-Denmark-Greenland security agreement
On September 18, 2026, President Donald Trump announced an agreement with Denmark and Greenland that he said gives the United States “permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland.” Danish and Greenlandic officials initially described an expected agreement and emphasized sovereignty and self-determination. On September 22, the White House published an agreement text dated that day. It reaffirms Denmark’s sovereignty and Greenland’s right to self-determination; provides for U.S. defense areas and access under stated procedures; bars non-NATO states from establishing military installations unless the parties agree otherwise; and has no end date. The text says it enters into force only after diplomatic notice of necessary parliamentary procedures. The dispute remains over how Trump’s “permanent control” description compares with the document’s terms.
Source and context
Interview
About this source
Entry in TV 2's live blog (the blog dates from 2025-01-06, so each entry has its own timestamp). The entry embeds an 89.8-second TV 2 video interview; the on-screen caption reads 'Martin Lidegaard, Erhvervs- og konkurrencekraft minister, Radikale Venstre'. The quotation follows the audio, not TV 2's printed text, and is our English translation. Original Danish of the quoted span (spelling normalised): 'det må vi vente til aftalen bliver offentliggjort i næste uge. Så det har jeg ikke så mange kommentarer til.' It is the tail of a longer answer that begins at 01:13 ('Du får mig ikke ... ud i nærmere detaljer eller indhold på aftalen ...'); the opening words are not quoted because two of them could not be transcribed consistently (a short word rendered 'nok' where TV 2 prints 'lokket', and three different renderings of the word for 'curiosity'). TV 2's printed line reads 'Du får mig ikke lokket ud i flere detaljer, det må vente til næste uge, så det har jeg ikke så mange kommentarer til.', a condensation, not a transcript. The question put to him, in the audio at 01:01-01:12, is TV 2's: according to Donald Trump the agreement gives the USA permanent control over security and all other needs in Greenland, 'Hvad betyder det?'. The quoted span is our transcription of the audio, and independent transcription passes agree on it.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Original text
About this source
Cited from the trumpstruth.org archive mirror, which shows the full text, the original post date (Friday, September 18, 2026, 05:18 pm EDT), the Truth Social status ID and the original URL https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/117294126158197822. We could not read the original post on Truth Social. The post says the United States “has entered into an Agreement,” whereas the Danish and Greenlandic release describes an expected agreement still to be signed. The identical text was posted on Trump’s X account (separate source). This page was captured by the mirror on September 19, 2026 at 11:51 AM EDT; the mirror’s later Truth Social entries through 12:52 PM EDT that day, including the transcript of a 1:06 AM video, do not mention Greenland.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Official statement
About this source
Context source for the text before the quotation, not a source of the quotation. Official English version of the joint release; the Danish original is on stm.dk.
Reporting
About this source
Context source for the text after the quotation, not a source of the quotation. TV 2 reports that at Radikale Venstre's national congress he repeated he was glad, and that although he had read the agreement he would not say more. The entry's video (our transcription of the audio) has him say he has read the agreement, calls it a good agreement, says it is somewhat secret until signed and that the Prime Minister should be allowed to say more, and answers a question on what increased military presence means with 'Det kan jeg desværre ikke'.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Reporting
About this source
Context source for the text after the quotation, not a source of the quotation. AP text as syndicated by WRAL (published 09:38 UTC, updated 13:28 UTC on 2026-09-19).
Before the quotation
On the evening of 18 September 2026 (U.S. Eastern time), President Trump announced on Truth Social an agreement with Denmark and Greenland that he said gives the United States permanent control over security and all other needs in Greenland, and a joint release from the Danish Prime Minister's Office and the Government of Greenland said the three governments were expected to sign an agreement the following week. In the interview, TV 2 put Trump's description to Lidegaard as a question after he had said he was very glad about the agreement.
After the quotation
About five hours later, TV 2 reported that at his party's national congress he repeated that he was glad and, although he had read the agreement, would not say more, saying it is somewhat secret until it is signed and that the Prime Minister should be allowed to say more. AP reported that the agreement had not yet been made public.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Asked directly what that description means, Lidegaard answered that it would have to wait until the agreement is published next week and that he had few comments on it, so in this answer he neither endorses nor disputes the description and closes discussion of it. The closest competing label is “Challenged the characterization”, because declining to interpret Trump's wording could be read as distancing from it. That loses because he does not dispute the wording or offer a different description; he only defers the question to the published text.
- Recorded on
- Published here
More from this case
Read the full caseTrump says the United States has Greenland now on an unlimited basis
“And when you add the United States and Venezuela together, and then you add Greenland, if you'd like, because we also have Greenland now. We worked out a great deal. We want to thank Denmark and Europe for making that possible. ... We got Greenland on an unlimited basis.”Read statement
Rubio says Trump is fully apprised of the Greenland deal when asked whether he misunderstood it
“Yeah, I'm not sure what comments you're referring to, and I certainly haven't followed how it's been covered in Denmark. Suffice it to say we have a very good deal, one the President is fully apprised of, he understands, and is very supportive of. ... we now have an agreement in place that will exist in perpetuity that ensures not just the equities of North America, meaning the United States and Canada, but all of our partners in NATO as well.”Read statement
Scott Horton says Trump announces at rallies an intention to violate the Greenland agreement
“Trump talks about how he "got Greenland" at every rally now, and people in Greenland, Denmark and around the world take note of how he signed agreements and then announced in campaign rallies his intention to violate them. This is not a joke.”Read statement
Share or embed this statement
The embed keeps its attribution link to The Dispute Index. Credit the image to The Dispute Index and link to the statement page.
Cite this record
- Publisher
- The Dispute Index
- Title
- Martin Lidegaard, asked what Trump's 'permanent control' wording means, says it must wait until the text is published
- First published
- Last updated
- Permalink
- https://disputeindex.com/events/1210-asked-by-tv-2-in-a-video-interview
Last updated marks the most recent saved version of this published statement.
The Dispute Index. "Martin Lidegaard, asked what Trump's 'permanent control' wording means, says it must wait until the text is published". First published: 2026-09-19. Last updated: 2026-09-26. https://disputeindex.com/events/1210-asked-by-tv-2-in-a-video-interview