Vice President JD Vance is heading to Greenland later this week, becoming the highest-ranking American official to journey to the Arctic territory President Donald Trump wants to bring under U.S. control.
Vance on Tuesday said he would travel to Greenland’s Northwest coast on Friday to visit a Space Force base and “check out what’s going on with the security there.” He will be joining his wife, Usha, who announced earlier this week she would travel with her son to see the national dogsled race. Vance’s office said Tuesday the visit to the Space Force base would occur instead of the dogsled race.
The president has made clear he wants to make the world’s largest island, an autonomous Danish territory, part of the U.S. — a trend for the president, whose sights are also set on Canada and the Panama Canal. Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, a small group of allies, including Donald Trump Jr. and top fundraiser Charlie Kirk, visited Greenland, whose government has emphasized it does not intend to become part of the U.S.
“Leaders in both America and in Denmark I think ignored Greenland for far too long,” the vice president said in a video announcing the trip. “That’s been bad for Greenland, it’s also been bad for the security of the entire world.”
He added that “other countries” had “threatened” to use Greenland to menace the U.S., Canada and Greenlanders themselves.
The second lady’s announcement that she would visit the territory “to celebrate the long history of respect and cooperation between our nations and to express hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years” caused anger among Greenlandic political leadership.
Outgoing prime minister Múte B. Egede on Sunday called the American posture toward Greenland “very aggressive” and “so serious that the level cannot be raised any further.”
“The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us, and the message is clear,” he added.
Trump on Monday told reporters that “People from Greenland are asking us to go there.” But the Greenlandic government refuted that claim, writing on Facebook that it “has not extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official.”
