Greenland fury and confusion at ‘highly aggressive’ US

Greenland says coming visit is act of aggression as Trump doubles down on pressuring self-governing Danish territory.

Protesters make their feelings clear outside the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland. Picture: AFP

A planned visit to Greenland this week to be led by second lady Usha Vance was originally presented as a feel-good event to celebrate local culture.

Instead, it is stirring anger and anxiety – and testing already strained relations between the US and European allies. And that was before Vice-President JD Vance announced that he would be joining his wife on the trip.

The US has now shifted the visit’s focus to national security even as both Danish and Greenlandic officials have insisted they see the uninvited trip as a provocation. Instead of a taking in a dogsled race as originally scheduled, the Vances will be visiting American soldiers at a US military base, far from any large settlement of civilian Greenlanders.

Greenland has denounced the visit by the delegation, which the White House said would include national security adviser Michael Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, as “highly aggressive”.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday dialled up the rhetoric, saying that the scheduled visit puts “completely unacceptable pressure on Greenland, Greenlandic politicians and the Greenlandic population”, as well as on Denmark. “President Trump is serious,” she told Danish television. “He wants Greenland.”

Mr Vance said on Tuesday that he chose to join his wife on Friday because of the pushback from the Danish government. “I decided I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself and so I’m going to join her,” he said in a video posted to X on Tuesday. The Vice-President reframed the trip as a “really important” matter for US national security.

The US trip adds to confusion in Greenland and Denmark about what the Trump administration actually wants with the self-governing territory of Denmark.

Beyond stating that Greenland is important to US national security and poorly protected by Denmark – and indicating that he covets its critical minerals – the only concrete wish Donald Trump has expressed about Greenland is for the US to own it. That stated desire has unsettled Greenlanders. Many watched Mr Trump’s speech to congress this month, when he said about their homeland, “One way or the other we’re going to get it,” followed by laughter from some in the audience.

Late on Sunday, residents of Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, watched as two US Hercules military transport planes touched down at the airport, carrying ­security personnel and bulletproof vehicles in apparent preparation for the visit. Greenlandic politicians say the trip amounts to meddling in their domestic affairs as they negotiate the formation of a new government after an election this month. The winner was a party that firmly rejects US ­advances and advocates slowing down the island’s push for independence.

“It is disrespectful to do this without an official invitation, while Greenland is in the process of forming a government,” said Aaja Chemnitz, one of two Greenlandic members of the Danish parliament. “Greenland decides its own future, and we will reach out to the US of our own accord, if we want closer co-operation.”

Mr Trump on Monday rejected the notion that the visit was a provocation. Despite the lack of official invitation, he claimed that the delegation has been invited by people in Greenland.

Jørgen Boassen, a 50-year-old bricklayer who in recent months has become known as Greenland’s most outspoken Trump supporter, said this week that he helped plan the visit, but on Tuesday declined to comment.

While Trump raised the idea of buying Greenland in his first term, his claims in his second term that he wants to acquire it is in keeping with his apparent notions of expanding the US. He has called Canada the 51st state.

The Wall Street Journal