WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that he’s joining his wife on a Friday trip to Greenland, suggesting in an online video that global security is at stake.
“We’re going to check out how things are going there,” Vance said in a video shared Tuesday. “Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protecting the security of the entire world.”
U.S. President Donald Trump irked much of Europe by suggesting that his country should in some form control the self-governing, mineral-rich territory of American ally Denmark. As the nautical gateway to the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America, Greenland has broader strategic value as both China and Russia also seek access to its waterways and the nearby natural resources.
The office of second lady Usha Vance said Sunday that she would depart Thursday for Greenland and return Saturday. Vance and one of her three children had planned to visit historic sites and learn about Greenland’s culture, but her husband’s participation has reoriented the trip around national security.
The U.S. vice president said he didn’t want to let his wife “have all that fun by herself” and said he plans to visit a Space Force outpost in the northwest coast of Greenland. Vance said that other countries have threatened Greenland as well as the United States and Canada.
Vance said that leaders in Denmark and North America had “ignored” Greenland for “far too long.”
During his first term, Trump floated the idea of purchasing the world’s largest island, even as Denmark, a NATO ally, insisted it wasn’t for sale. The people of Greenland also have firmly rejected Trump’s plans.
Usha Vance and a U.S. delegation were scheduled to visit Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race, which would include about 37 mushers and 444 dogs.
Trump’s return to the White House has included a desire with territorial expansion, with the U.S. president seeking to add Canada as a 51st state and resume control of the Panama Canal. He has also indicated that U.S. interests could take over the land in the war-torn Gaza Strip from Israel and convert it into a luxury outpost.
