Danish officials appear relieved after Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance changed their Greenland visit itinerary, which had sparked anger among residents.
The couple, joined by national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, will visit the U.S. Space Force outpost at Pituffik, on the northwest coast of Greenland. The Second Lady was initially scheduled for a solo trip to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, and the Avannaata Qimussersu dogsled race in Sisimiut.
The visit comes after President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for the U.S. to obtain Greenland, claiming earlier this week that the territory is important for national security.
The itinerary change keeps the group away from highly-populated areas and reduces the likelihood that they will cross paths with residents protesting the Trump administration’s attempts to annex the vast Arctic island, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told Danish broadcaster DR Wednesday that the Vances’ updated travel plans are a good thing, calling it a de-escalation.
Anne Merrild, a professor and Arctic expert at Aalborg University in Denmark, said recent anti-U.S. demonstrations in Nuuk might have scared the Trump administration enough to revise the trip to avoid interactions with angry Greenlanders.
Still, Merrild said, even a visit to the space base shows that the U.S. administration still considers annexing Greenland to be on the table.
“It’s a signal to the whole world, it’s a strong signal to Denmark, it’s a signal to Greenland,” she said. “And of course it’s also an internal signal to the U.S., that this is something that we’re pursuing.”
The original itinerary was viewed as controversial because Greenland doesn’t currently have a government after holding elections earlier this month, according to Marc Jacobsen, a professor at the Royal Danish Defense College.
“Greenland and Denmark have stated very clearly that they don’t want the U.S. to visit right now, when Greenland doesn’t have a government in place,” Jacobsen said.
Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., visited Greenland in January, arriving on Trump Force One just weeks before his father took office.
Trump Jr. posted a video of himself there on Instagram, posing beneath a statue of the Lutheran missionary Hans Egede who is credited with first settling the barren territory in 1721 before spinning his phone camera around to showcase the “incredible scenery.”
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk also turned out to be among his entourage.
After the visit, Pipaluk Lynge, an MP from Greenland’s largest party and chair of the parliamentary foreign and security policy committee, said the whole event was “staged.” A spokesperson for Trump Jr. denied this.
Danish MP Rasmus Jarlov wasn’t happy with the visit, writing on X: “This level of disrespect from the coming US president towards very, very loyal allies and friends is record-setting.”
—
Additional reporting by AP.
