US Vice President JD Vance wants to accompany his wife Usha on a controversial trip to Greenland. “The excitement for Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday was so great – so I decided that I don’t want her to have all the fun alone,” said President Donald Trump’s deputy in a video on the X. So he would travel to the island together with his wife.
Usha Vance’s travel plans recently made headlines. According to official information, she originally planned to visit historical sites with her son and companions from Thursday to Saturday, to learn more about the Greenland legacy and to attend a traditional dog sled race.
The journey is explosive because Trump has once again claimed to control Greenland in his second term, and in the past few months he has repeated his wish to turn the island into a US territory. Trump justifies this with national or international security. Against this background, his son Donald Jr. had already traveled to Nuuk for a day at the beginning of January – which also caused a sensation.
According to media reports, Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz and Energy Minister Chris Wright should also be part of the travel elegation. Nevertheless, there was talk of a private trip – something that the Americans were not bought in both Greenland and Denmark.
Military base instead of dog sled races
Now the travel plans have changed significantly: According to the White House, a visit to the dog sled race in Sisimiut has been canceled, according to the managing Greenland government, other program items in the capital Nuuk. The Grönland newspaper “Sermitsiaq” and the Danish radio broadcaster Dr already observed at the airport in Nuuk, as the Americans sent ball -safe vehicles back on the journey home, which had previously been flown in for the upcoming visit.
For this, the vances now want to travel together to the US military base Pituffik Space Base on Friday, which formerly called Thule Air Base and is located in the completely secluded northwest of Greenland. This means that you will probably not have direct contact with the Greenland population – and thus also avoid announced new demonstrations against US courses.
Just buy the largest island in the world?
Greenland is the largest island on earth. From a geographical point of view, it is located on the North American continent, but belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark. In terms of area, Greenland is six times as large as Germany, but has just under 57,000 inhabitants, which is roughly comparable to a medium-sized German city like Baden-Baden or Frankfurt an der Oder. The island is of great importance for the world climate and for the military control of the Arctic, it is also rich in raw materials such as rare earths. Important shipping routes also run in the region.
Trump has had an eye on Greenland for a long time. In his first term (2017 to 2021) he suggested that the USA could simply buy the island – this proposal was rejected by Greenland and Danish side.
Guests without an invitation
Donald Trump had recently claimed that the planned journey from Usha Vance had successes. However, Greenland’s managing government made it clear that she had not invited anyone – neither for a private nor on an official visit. Greenland politics has to do other things anyway: after the parliamentary election on March 11, it is in the process of forming a new government. On April 1st, local elections will also take place on the island.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also complained that when visiting Usha Vance, it is obviously not about what Greenland needs or wish. Frederiksen spoke of an unacceptable pressure that is exerted on Greenland and Denmark. The NATO partner Denmark points out that the citizens of the largely autonomous island could decide on their future and their possible independence from the Danish kingdom.
Breathe to Affront
The Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen was ultimately able to get the now amended American travel plans. “I actually find it very positive that the Americans cancel their visit to the Greenland community,” he said in the morning in the Danish radio. The fact that they visited their own base instead of Pituffik, but there was no objection.
The same is seen in Greenland. He expects many Greenlanders to breathe a sigh of relief that the US visit only go to Pituffik and not to Nuuk and Sisimiut, “Sermitsiaq” editor-in-chief Masaana Eggede assessed at the DR. Nevertheless, one is still irritated by the visit. “I believe that a very many continue to consider him a provocation,” he said.
In addition, JD Vance will end up with the Trump representative, which has so far been highest on Friday. He announced that he wanted to meet representatives of the US World Commerce Command Space Force during the visit, “how it is about security in Greenland”. Many other countries threatened Greenland – and also threatened to use their territories and waterways in order to act against the USA and Canada. “So we will check how things are going there,” he pushed. Politicians in the United States and Denmark have ignored Greenland for far too long, he complained.
