Fact-check: viral video and claims Denmark trolled Trump and Rubio with 'Send in the Clowns'

A video circulating online claims that Danish officials played Judy Collins' song "Send in the Clowns" as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived for a signing ceremony related to Greenland, fueling claims that Denmark had deliberately "trolled" Rubio and, by extension, the Trump administration.

According to checks of separate livestream footage of the event, the song did in fact play during the arrival, and the video itself does not appear to have been manipulated. The audio matches independent recordings of the same moment.

No evidence of deliberate intent

Denmark has denied that officials deliberately chose the music for the occasion. The United Nations, which some claims associated with organizing the event, has said it did not organize the ceremony in question.

While the underlying video and audio are genuine, there is no evidence confirming that Danish officials intentionally selected the song as a pointed message toward the US delegation. The claims of deliberate trolling therefore remain unsubstantiated, even though the core video is authentic.

The episode illustrates how a genuine, unaltered video can still be used to support an unverified narrative, in this case about diplomatic tension surrounding Greenland and the sequence of events at the signing ceremony.