This piece develops a performative take on securitization theory. It argues that rather than seeing authority as a prerequisite for speaking security, we need to zoom in on how speaking security can be used to claim authority. Such acts of claiming authority are crucial to understand the current political struggles to redefine security. In order to do so, I make two claims taking securitization theory further, an iterative claim and a performative claim. One, following Derrida, we must open up what can be said about security, enabling an analysis of how the security logic is not only used, but also challenged and changed. Two, following Butler, we must open up who can speak security, seeing how speaking security can be used to take authority, rather than seeing authority as a precondition for speaking security.