Vice President JD (at right), seated next to second lady Usha Vance, eats at a table with soldiers at the U.S. military’s Pituffik Space Base on March 28 in Pituffik, Greenland.
Jim Watson/Pool/Getty Images)
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Jim Watson/Pool/Getty Images)
Vice President JD Vance landed at a U.S. military base in Greenland on Friday, amid concerns that the U.S. is seeking to seize control of the Danish island territory.
“The president is really interested in Arctic security, as you all know, and it’s only going to get bigger over the coming decades,” Vance told U.S. troops at Pituffik Space Base.
Vance made the trip to the Danish territory with the second lady, Usha Vance, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other leaders.
It was actually a scaled-down itinerary , after Greenland and Denmark leaders criticized the U.S. for not having been informed. The original plans called for a solo visit by the second lady to the capital city, Nuuk, for a cultural tour and to attend a dogsled race.
President Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in acquiring the territory.
“They really like the idea because they have been somewhat abandoned, as you know. They haven’t been taken well, good care of. And I think Greenland is going to be something that maybe is in our future,” Trump told reporters on Monday. When Vance announced he was joining his wife on the trip, he said the Trump administration wants to “reinvigorate” security there given that “a lot of other countries have threatened to use its territories and its waterways” to threaten the U.S.
Polls show that most Greenlanders oppose the idea of becoming part of the United States. It also sparked some of the island’s largest protests, with angry Greenlanders holding “Yankees Go Home” signs and wearing “Make America Go Away” caps. Greenland and Denmark have both said that Greenland is not for sale.
This story will be updated.
