Vice President JD Vance landed in Greenland on Friday afternoon as part of a contentious trip pushed by the Trump administration and angrily opposed by Greenlanders.
His group, which includes his wife, Usha, and the national security adviser, Michael Waltz, was set to tour the Pituffik Space Base, an American missile defense station and one of the most remote military installations in the world.
President Trump has been insisting that the United States take over Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. He has vowed to “get it — one way or the other.”
The government of Greenland did not invite the Vance team and protests had been planned in Nuuk, the capital, where Ms. Vance was originally scheduled to visit. That part of the trip was scrapped a few days ago, and the entire visit will instead unfold at the military base, far from any town — or any chance of an embarrassing TV moment.
The White House’s original plan was for Ms. Vance, the second lady, to attend a famous dog sled race this weekend and see other cultural sites, in an effort to bring the United States and Greenland closer.
But the plan backfired. Protesters were gearing up to line the road from the airport into town. The island’s government blasted the visit as “highly aggressive.” Even the organizers of the dog sled race said they never asked Ms. Vance to attend in the first place.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Vance took issue with this, saying she had received “multiple invitations.”
According to journalists traveling with the Vances, Air Force Two touched down at Pituffik Space Base around 1 p.m. Greenland time. Mr. Vance stepped off wearing jeans and a green coat. It was sunny and minus 3 degrees Fahrenheit.
As he sat down for lunch at the base, Mr. Vance made a colorful remark about how cold it was and said, “Nobody told me,” prompting laughs.
American officials had said the Vances would be traveling with Chris Wright, the energy secretary; Mike Lee, a Republican senator; and Mr. Waltz, who is under fire for discussing military plans over a messaging app in a group that included a journalist.
Foreign policy analysts said the revised trip was a watered-down version of what the White House wanted.
“It’s a tactical retreat,” said Lars Trier Mogensen, a political analyst based in Copenhagen. “On the one hand, they de-escalated by not carrying out the full cultural mission and skipping the P.R. stunt. On the other hand, it’s a symbolic escalation that the highest-ranking official is visiting Greenland.”
Mr. Vance is the most senior American official to ever visit the island, according to foreign policy experts.
Since his first term, Mr. Trump has been fixated on Greenland. In 2019, he floated the idea of buying it: Danish officials called that “absurd,” which provoked Mr. Trump into calling them “nasty.”
This January, Mr. Trump resurrected the idea for “national security purposes” and refused to rule out using force to take Greenland from Denmark.
Greenland’s size — it’s the largest island in the world — and its location in North America along the increasingly contested Arctic Ocean seems to be the root of Mr. Trump’s fascination. Members of his inner circle, including Mr. Vance, have also spoken of Greenland’s “incredible natural resources” (though most of them are buried under ice).
Just this week, Mr. Trump said again: “We need it. We have to have it.”
Greenland had been steadily inching away from Denmark, with the island gaining more power over its own affairs and Greenlanders showing more interest in full independence. There is — or there was until recently — a significant movement within Greenland that wanted to form a closer alliance with the United States, which has stationed troops on the island since World War II.
But the mood is turning against Mr. Trump, and many ordinary Greenlanders didn’t want Mr. Vance to come at all.
“I don’t know what he wants,” said Tupaarnaq Kanuthsen, a woman walking through Nuuk on Friday. “He’s not welcome.”
Shortly before Mr. Vance arrived, officials in Greenland announced a new government; the island held elections a few weeks ago.
The new government will be a coalition of all the island’s major parties except one — the Naleraq party, which has the closest connections to Mr. Trump. One of the party’s prominent members has been open about his support for Mr. Trump and even attended the president’s inauguration.
Politicians from the ruling coalition downplayed the significance of the exclusion of the Naleraq party, citing other reasons that they couldn’t work with its members.
But members of the excluded party, which came in second during the election, didn’t buy it.
“I think our party has been misunderstood,” said Qupanuk Olsen, one of Naleraq’s new members of Parliament.
“Being open to cooperation with the U.S. is being interpreted as sucking up to them,” she said. “But it’s really just about openness to business and trade. Trump is only president for four more years; we have to think 10, 20 years ahead. We can’t just shut out the U.S. completely.”
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