Richard Weitz
Role at the time: Senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, described by Al Jazeera as a fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome, quoted by Al Jazeera
Statement summary
Quoted in an Al Jazeera report published October 14, 2026, Richard Weitz said Trump backed down and settled for less than he had sought on Greenland, but still got pretty much everything he wanted except formal annexation. Al Jazeera described Weitz as a fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome.
“backed down and settled for less ... got pretty much everything he wanted, except formal annexation”
Why we used this label
Relative to Trump's description of the agreement as giving the United States permanent control over security and all other needs in Greenland, Weitz says Trump backed down and settled for less than he sought, and also that he got pretty much everything he wanted except formal annexation. The first part qualifies Trump's account of what he won and the second largely accepts it, so the statement combines materially different positions. The closest competing label is defends or excuses, because he says Trump got nearly everything. That loses because he also says Trump backed down and settled for less.