U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance, and two top Trump administration officials traveled to Greenland on Friday on an itinerary that was markedly curtailed from its original plans due to Greenlandersâ frosty reception amid President Donald Trumpâs ongoing threats to take the Arctic island from NATO ally Denmark â even by armed force if deemed necessary.
Vance visited Pituffik Space Base â a U.S. Space Force installation on the northwestern coast of Greenland about 930 miles (1,500 km) north of the capital, Nuuk â with his wife, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
The vice presidentâs wife originally planned on a more interactive and cultural itinerary, including attending a dogsled race. However, Greenlandâs leftist government said earlier this week that is had ânot extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official.â
Compounding the Trump administrationâs embarrassment, U.S. representatives reportedly came up empty handed after canvassing door to door in Nuuk in an effort to drum up support for the visit. The administration denies this ever happened.
And so the Trump officialsâ audience was limited to U.S. troops stationed at Pituffik. After arriving at the base, the vice president told troops in the mess hall he was surprised to find the snow- and ice-covered Arctic island is âcold as shit.â
âNobody told me!â he added.
Getting down to more serious business, Vance said: âOur message to Denmark is very simple â you have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have under-invested in the people of Greenland and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful land mass.â
Addressing Arctic geopolitics, Vance argued that âwe canât just bury our head in the sand â or in Greenland, bury our head in the snow â and pretend that the Chinese are not interested in this very large land mass. We know that they are.â
âThe president said we have to have Greenland, and I think that we do have to be more serious about the security of Greenland,â Vance continued. âWe respect the self-determination of the people of Greenland, but my argument to them is: I think that youâd be a lot better coming under the United Statesâ security umbrella than you have been under Denmarkâs security umbrella. Because what Denmarkâs security umbrella has meant is effectively theyâve passed it all off to brave Americans and hoped that we would pick up the tab.â
This follows remarks earlier this week from Vance, who said during a Fox News interview that Denmark, which faithfully sent troops to fight in both Afghanistan and Iraq â 43 of whom died, the highest per capita casualty rate of the alliance â is ânot being a good allyâ to the United States.
Asked by reporters on Friday if the U.S. would ever conquer Greenland by military force, Vance said he didnât think that would be necessary.
However, just a day earlier, Trump â who on Friday posted a video highlighting defense cooperation between the U.S. and Greenland â said his administration will âgo as far as we have to goâ to acquire the island, which he claimed the United States needs âfor national security and international security.â
It was far from the first time that Trump â who has also threatened to take over parts or all of countries including Panama and even Canada â vowed to annex Greenland, and other administration officials have repeated the presidentâs threats.
âItâs oil and gas. Itâs our national security. Itâs critical minerals,â Waltz said in January, explaining why Trump wants Greenland.
The U.S. has long been interested in Greenland, and while the close relationship between the United States and Denmark has been mostly mutually beneficial, it has sometimes come at the expense of Greenlandâs people, environment, and wildlife.
Such was the case when a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber laden with four thermonuclear warheads crashed into the sea ice of Wolstenholme Fjord in 1968. The accident caused widespread radioactive contamination, and the nuclear fuel components of one of the bombs remain unrecovered to this day.
Elected officials from across Greenland and Denmarkâs political spectrum expressed alarm over the Trump administrationâs actions.
Outgoing Greenland Prime Minister MĂște Bourup Egede earlier this week called Vanceâs trip âhighly aggressiveâ and said that it âcan in no way be characterized as a harmless visit.â
âBecause what is the security advisor doing in Greenland?â Egede asked. âThe only purpose is to show a demonstration of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood.â
Danish Foreign Minister Lars LĂžkke called Vanceâs remarks on Friday âa bit inappropriate,â adding that maybe the Trump administration âshould look at yourself in the mirror too.â
âWhen the vice president.. creates an image that the only way Greenland can be protected is by coming under the American umbrella, so you can say that Greenland is already there,â LĂžkke elaborated. âThey are part of the common security umbrella that we created together with the Americans after the end of World War II called NATO.â
Ordinary Greenlanders and Danish residents of the island were not happy about the Trump delegationâs visit.
Anders Laursen, who owns a local water taxi company, told NBC News that âwe have always looked at America like the nice big brother to help you out and now itâs like the big brother is bullying you.â
Nuuk resident Marie Olsen said of Vance, âI think heâs a big child who wants it all.â
In the Danish capital Copenhagen, hundreds of people rallied Friday against the U.S. delegationâs visit to Greenland. One protester decried what she called the U.S. administrationâs âmafia methods.â
Weâre not backing down in the face of Trumpâs threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that weâre not shouting into a faceless void â weâre reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations â either through need or greed â rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trumpâs wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We wonât run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths â a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthoutâs funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.
