(NewsNation) — Vice president JD Vance said he will join his wife, second lady Usha Vance, on a visit to Greenland on Friday.
“We’re going to check out how things are going there,” JD Vance said in a Tuesday video posted on X. “Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protecting the security of the entire world.”
The Vances will be joined by White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Reuters reports. The visit comes as President Donald Trump continues to push for the U.S. to take the territory from Denmark.
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Greenland’s outgoing Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede criticized the trip, calling the U.S. delegation’s visit “very aggressive” in nature.
“The only purpose is to show a show of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood,” Egede told the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday.
That’s a sentiment Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen echoed Tuesday. Frederiksen accused the U.S. of placing “unacceptable pressure” on both Greenland and Denmark, which is a founding member of NATO.
Despite backlash from the small territory’s leaders, JD Vance maintains that the Friday visit has Greenland’s best interests at heart.
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The vice president, second lady and other Trump allies are set to receive a briefing on arctic security issues and tour the northernmost security installation for the U.S. military, the Space Force’s Pituffik Space Base.
Operations at the base include advanced missile detection as well as space surveillance, according to its official website.
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This visit all comes as Trump doubles down on his desire to annex Greenland. During his Monday Cabinet meeting, Trump told his top White House advisers that control over the territory is “maybe in our future.”
Earlier this month, Trump during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said, “I think it will happen,” referencing the acquisition of Greenland.
Rutte agreed that Greenland and the Arctic Circle are critical for security reasons, noting that China and Russia have a growing presence in the region. But he said any discussion about Trump’s attempts to acquire Greenland were outside of his purview.
“I don’t want to drag NATO in that,” Rutte said.
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The self-governing territory of Denmark is home to around 56,000 people who are primarily from indigenous Inuit backgrounds.
Greenland has rich earth mineral deposits, which are used to make cell phones and produce renewable energy.
The island also has access to strategic air and sea routes. Its arctic positioning has attracted the interest of both Trump and the Russian military.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
