U.S. Vice President JD Vance has announced an official visit to Greenland later this week, calling for greater American engagement with the world’s largest island and accusing both American and Danish leadership of neglecting Greenland’s strategic significance “for far too long.”
The Vice President will be accompanied by Second Lady Usha Vance and Energy Secretary Chris Wright as part of a U.S. delegation visiting Pituffik Space Base, a key American military installation located in northwest Greenland.
“We’re going to check out how things are going there,” said Vice President Vance. “Speaking on behalf of President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland, because we believe it is critical to safeguarding the security of the entire world.”
Originally, Second Lady Vance had planned to attend a major local event—a traditional dog-sled race—which drew criticism from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who called the visit “unacceptable pressure” on the semi-autonomous Danish territory. The Vances have since shifted their focus to visiting the U.S. military installation.
“A lot of countries have threatened Greenland,” Vance said. “We think we can take things in a different direction.”
Greenland’s location, natural resources, and proximity to both Europe and the Arctic Ocean have made it a focal point for U.S. strategic interest, particularly under the Trump administration, which has openly discussed Greenland’s future role in North American security and resource development.
Despite pushback from Danish and Greenlandic officials, the Trump administration has repeatedly emphasized Greenland’s importance to the U.S. ballistic missile warning system and Arctic operations. Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede has publicly condemned the U.S. interest in acquiring or controlling the island, stating that his government has exhausted “all diplomatic and democratic options.”
The upcoming visit also comes amid questions about the participation of National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, whose name was absent from the official itinerary released today. Waltz was initially expected to be part of the Greenland delegation, but his travel plans may have changed following a recent internal communications leak involving the use of Signal for discussions on U.S. airstrikes in Yemen.
Waltz has since accepted responsibility for creating the group chat, calling the situation “embarrassing” but not serious, while President Trump expressed continued confidence in him.