The Trump administration seems like it just doubled down on Greenland.
Vice President JD Vance announced on Tuesday that he was headed to the island later this week, taking over a controversial visit that officials in Greenland have made very clear they don’t want at all.
Originally, the Trump administration said that Usha Vance, the second lady, and Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, would make the trip to Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark that President Trump wants for the United States.
Officials from Denmark and Greenland immediately branded the move “aggressive” and part of the president’s plan to get the island, as he recently put it, “one way or the other.”
The White House then issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon changing up the visit. The new itinerary is for Mr. and Ms. Vance to visit Pituffik Space Base, high above the Arctic Circle, “to receive a briefing on Arctic security issues and meet with U.S. service members.”
In a post on X, Mr. Vance said he would “just check out what’s going on with the security there of Greenland.”
Anti-Trump sentiment has been rising steadily on the island, and activists were already preparing to protest the arrival of the American delegation, starting at the international airport in the capital, Nuuk. But now it seems that the Vances might not even set foot in Nuuk.
The United States has a longstanding defense agreement with Denmark to station troops in Greenland, and American officials can visit the base at will. Foreign-policy analysts said on Tuesday night that they expected the Vances to travel directly to the space base, which is nearly 1,000 miles north of Nuuk, and avoid the cauldron that is brewing in the capital.
Greenland officials have emphasized that they never invited the Americans in the first place but they have little control over who visits the American base.
Initially, the plan was for Ms. Vance and one of her sons to watch a dog sled race, a cherished Greenland tradition, in Sisimiut, one of Greenland’s bigger towns. But the organizers of the race made a pointed statement on Sunday that while the race was open to the public, they had not asked the Vances to attend.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Vance denied that, saying she had received “multiple invitations.” Still, the White House announced on Tuesday that she would no longer be going to the race.
U.S. administration officials had originally planned for Mr. Waltz to visit the space base, which is an important piece of the United States’ missile defense. But with Mr. Waltz now embroiled in a controversy over his use of a mobile messaging application to discuss sensitive war plans, his participation seems up in the air.
As the news broke on Tuesday night that Mr. Vance would be arriving, Greenland’s government wasn’t pleased. Politicians there are embroiled in delicate talks over who will form the island’s next administration. Earlier this month, the island held parliamentary elections, but the outcome was mixed, with no party winning a clear majority.
“We’ve asked for peace and quiet and no international visits while negotiations are ongoing, and that should be respected,” said Pipaluk Lynge-Rasmussen, a leading member of the departing ruling party.
Some political analysts in Denmark said that the decision to send Mr. Vance was an “escalation.”
“They choose to double down on it — massively escalate, in fact — this provocative show of force by sending JD Vance,” said Lars Trier Mogensen, a political commentator in Copenhagen. “That is many times more significant than either Mike Waltz or Usha Vance.”
“In Denmark, people are starting to see this as a kind of hybrid warfare,” he added, pointing to comparisons with Crimea, the region annexed by Russia in 2014, where lines between diplomacy and provocation were deliberately blurred.
But others saw the decision to visit the American base and ditch the dog sled race as perhaps less provocative.
“If the visit to Nuuk has been canceled, the Trump administration may be stepping back by avoiding imposing itself on civilian Greenland,” said Ulrik Pram Gad, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. “Focusing solely on the military base brings the conversation back to security.”
Content Source: www.nytimes.com