MARCH 28, 2025
US Vice President JD Vance arrives Friday at Pituffik Space Base in Greenland. – Jim Watson/Press Pool
US Vice President JD Vance, speaking at a U.S. Space Force base in Greenland, criticized Denmark’s stewardship of the autonomous territory and encouraged Greenlanders to embrace U.S. efforts to exert more control over the island.
“Our message to Denmark is very simple: you have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance said at the Pituffik Space Base, with U.S. troops behind him. “You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. That has to change.”
Vance called on the people of Greenland to reject Denmark’s oversight, arguing that the U.S. was better positioned to protect the territory from China and Russia. He said the U.S. had seen “very strong evidence” that Beijing and Moscow were interested in Greenland because of its strategic location.
“I think that you’d be a lot better coming under the United States’ security umbrella than you have been under Denmark’s security umbrella,” Vance said.
The trip shows how serious the administration is about taking control of Greenland. Trump offered to buy Greenland from Denmark in his first term, but didn’t campaign on the issue. After he was elected in 2024, he began talking about expanding the U.S. by acquiring Greenland—although it isn’t for sale—making Canada the 51st state and regaining control of the Panama Canal.
The visit of the American delegation to Greenland has unsettled many people who live there, including in the territory’s capital of Nuuk. – Leon Neal/Getty Images
But Vance, who praised Greenlanders during his remarks, ruled out taking the island by force. “We do not think that military force is ever going to be necessary, we think this makes sense,” he said. “We think we’re going to be able to cut a deal Donald Trump-style.”
Asked about Vance’s trip, Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday: “We need Greenland very importantly for international security. We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of, ‘Do you think we can do without it?’ We can’t.”
Vance, during his Friday speech, said there were no immediate plans to expand the U.S. military presence on the island. But he said he expected the U.S. to invest in additional ice breakers and naval ships that will have a greater presence in Greenland
Under normal circumstances, a U.S. vice president visiting American soldiers in Pituffik would be uncontroversial—or perhaps celebrated as Vance is the first vice president to visit the island—but the current climate makes the trip explosive. The short notice before the visit—days, rather than weeks or months—and the lack of coordination between Washington and Copenhagen illustrates how strained relations have become between two countries that for decades enjoyed some of the firmest ties in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance.
The White House initially announced the visit as a cultural sojourn by second lady Usha Vance that would include a trip to watch the biggest dog sled race in the region. Danish and Greenlandic officials said they warned the Trump administration in the runup to the trip that a high-level U.S. delegation visit to the island would damage already fraying ties between Washington, Copenhagen, and Nuuk, the Greenland capital. Danish and Greenlandic officials said they told counterparts in the White House, State Department, and Congress that the trip should be cancelled.
Vance announced Tuesday in a video message days before the trip that he wanted to join his wife so she didn’t have all the fun, though with Vance coming, the trip was framed as one focused on national security. Both Copenhagen and Nuuk saw the announcement of Vance’s visit only to the American space base as a diplomatic win, Danish and Greenlandic officials said
Vance has become an outspoken emissary for Trump and his America First message on the world stage. During a recent trip to Germany, Vance accused Europe of repressing free speech and ignoring the will of voters on issues such as mass migration. In a tense meeting in the Oval Office last month, Vance demanded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky be more grateful for U.S. support.
The visit has thrust Greenlanders and Danish politicians into uncertainty about the island’s future and Trump’s ambitions there. While Trump says he wants to own Greenland, he hasn’t laid out a detailed proposal for acquiring it.
Trump already has the freedom to deploy more U.S. troops and establish military installations on the island, according to a 1951 treaty between the U.S. and Denmark. While Trump covets the island’s critical minerals, U.S. companies have had little success extracting them.
Friday’s visit has unsettled many Greenlanders.
“Mr. Trump’s continuous talk about ‘getting Greenland one way or the other’ is very upsetting to the people of Greenland,” said Grace J. Heindorf Nielsen, a retired English teacher in Nuuk. “We do not wish to be American citizens or a part of the U.S.”
Vice President JD Vance and and second lady Usha Vance shared a meal Friday with soldiers at Pituffik Space Base in Greenland. – Jim Watson/AP
In addition to the U.S., Russia has sought to assert its influence over wide areas of the Arctic in competition with Canada, Denmark and Norway. As the polar ice melts, many nations are seeing the potential for mining rare minerals and securing control over new shipping routes.
“It would be wrong to believe that this is some sort of extravagant talk by the current U.S. administration,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. “It’s obvious that the United States will continue to systematically advance its geostrategic, military-political and economic interests in the Arctic.”
On Friday, hours before the U.S. delegation arrived, Greenland introduced a new government led by the Democrats, a social-liberal party that favors a slower push for independence than most other parties, while working for stronger economic self-sufficiency, and which has spoken out forcefully against U.S. pressure.
The new Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the island was under “unfair pressure.”
“We are firmly united in Greenland, no matter what we are subjected to,” he told reporters in Nuuk.
Courtesy/Source: TWSJ
