diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Build/2018-11-01-15-01-23.bpo-35139.XZTttb.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Build/2018-11-01-15-01-23.bpo-35139.XZTttb.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..aa65088be80936
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Build/2018-11-01-15-01-23.bpo-35139.XZTttb.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix a compiler error when statically linking `pyexpat` in `Modules/Setup`.
diff --git a/Modules/Setup b/Modules/Setup
index a0622cc8c647ca..47219bcceae07a 100644
--- a/Modules/Setup
+++ b/Modules/Setup
@@ -333,7 +333,7 @@ _symtable symtablemodule.c
 # Interface to the Expat XML parser
 # More information on Expat can be found at www.libexpat.org.
 #
-#pyexpat expat/xmlparse.c expat/xmlrole.c expat/xmltok.c pyexpat.c -I$(srcdir)/Modules/expat -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -DUSE_PYEXPAT_CAPI
+#pyexpat expat/xmlparse.c expat/xmlrole.c expat/xmltok.c pyexpat.c -I$(srcdir)/Modules/expat -DHAVE_EXPAT_CONFIG_H -DXML_POOR_ENTROPY=1 -DUSE_PYEXPAT_CAPI
 
 # Hye-Shik Chang's CJKCodecs