Vice President JD Vance will not be welcomed by Greenland when he arrives in Greenland on Friday.
Mr. Vance will be the U.S. official who has ever visited the island.
But the Greenland government never invited him, after all, President Trump said about his desire to “get” the island that many Greenlanders don't want Mr. Vance to come at all. Mr. Vance plans to visit a remote U.S. military base on the northern coast, away from any town.
The White House's original plan was even more ambitious. Second Lady Usha Vance announced she will be participating in a famous dog sled race this weekend and see other cultural attractions to bring the United States and Greenland closer.
But the plan backfires. Protesters are preparing to line up from the airport in Nuuk Airport, the capital of Greenland. The island's government sees the visit as unnecessary and “highly aggressive”. The organizers of the dog sled race issued a sharp statement saying they never asked Ms. Vance to attend first.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Vance expressed doubts about this, saying she had received “multiple invitations.”
The White House responded by reducing the trip to Mr. Vance, his wife and other officials through the sweep of the remote Pituffik space base, a U.S. missile defense station that is nearly a thousand miles from planned protests.
Greenland is a semi-autonomous region of Denmark and has been linked to Denmark for more than 300 years. The Danish government also strongly opposed the original plan, and on Thursday, Prime Minister Met Frederickson said: “There is no doubt that we are facing a difficult situation.”
According to Danish media reports, Mr Vance will land at the base around Greenland time. U.S. officials said he will travel with Energy Secretary Chris Wright. Republican Senator Mike Lee; National Security Advisor Michael Waltz has come under fire for discussing military plans through messaging apps in a group including journalists.
Foreign policy analysts say the new plan is the weaker version the White House wants.
“It's a tactical retreat and a strike later,” said Lars Trier Mogensen, a political analyst in Copenhagen. “On the one hand, they didn't perform a full cultural mission and skip PR stunts to lower it. On the other hand, the top officials are visiting Greenland, a symbolic escalation that emphasizes Trump's message that it should be American.”
Mr. Trump has been fixed in Greenland since his first term. In 2019, he came up with the idea of buying it: Danish officials called that “ridiculous”, which inspired Mr. Trump to call them “hate.”
In January, Mr. Trump revived his interest in Greenland as a “national security purpose” and refused to rule out the use of force to seize force from Denmark.
Greenland's huge size – it's the largest island in the world and three times that of Texas – its location in North America's growing Arctic oceans seems to be the source of Trump's obsession. Members of the inner circle, including Mr. Vance, also spoke about Greenland’s “incredible natural resources” (although most of them are buried under the ice).
Just this week, Mr. Trump said again: “We need it. We have to have it.”
“From defensive postures and even offensive postures, Greenland is what we need,” he said.
Greenland has been away from Denmark, and the island has gained greater power in its affairs, and Greenland has become more interested in total independence. Or until recently, a major movement took place in Greenland, where he wanted to build a closer alliance with the United States, which had been stationed on the island since World War II, for trade and military purposes. But emotions over the past few weeks have been even more opposed to Mr. Trump’s opposition.
On Friday, on a cloudy day in Nuuk, the average Greenlander said they were not satisfied with Mr. Vance coming.
“I don’t know what he wants,” said Tupaarnaq Kanuthsen, a woman walking through childbirth leave in New York City. “He is not welcome.”
“They have no business here,” said Jens Olsen, a retiree on his way to the bank.
He said Mr. Vance “should be kicked out immediately by the police.”
