Vice President JD Vance leaves after speaking at the Congressional Cities Conference of the National League of Cities on Monday, March 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) **FILE**
Vice President JD Vance leaves after speaking at the Congressional Cities Conference of the National League of Cities on Monday, March 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) **FILE**
Vice President J.D. Vance will travel to Greenland on Friday, joining his wife, who is visiting the massive island that President Trump wants the U.S. to acquire.
Mr. Vance and second lady Usha Vance will visit the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland to receive a briefing on Arctic security issues and meet with U.S. service members.
Pituffik Space Base, which is operated by the U.S. Space Force, is the military’s northernmost installation. It supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance missions.
“The strategic partnership between the United States and Greenland has long played a vital role in our national and economic security,” Mr. Vance said in a statement. “In the decades since, neglect and inaction from Danish leaders and past U.S. administrations presented our adversaries with the opportunity to advance their priorities in Greenland and the Arctic. President Trump is rightly changing course.”
Mr. Trump has ratcheted up his efforts to annex Greenland, which has been under the sole or joint control of Denmark for longer than the U.S. has existed.
He sent a high-powered delegation, which includes Mrs. Vance, to the island, apparently uninvited, to attend a dogsled race. He unnerved some of Greenland’s leaders earlier this month when he said “one way or another we’re going to get it.”
The second lady is scheduled to arrive Thursday to attend cultural events, including a dogsled race.
Greenland is rich in untapped minerals and is strategically located for U.S. military interests. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright also have separate visits scheduled for Pituffik in the coming days.
The government of Greenland distanced itself from Mrs. Vance’s visit in a Facebook post late Monday, saying it had “not extended any invitations for any visits neither private nor official.”
“We are now at a level where this cannot in any way be characterized as a harmless visit from a politician’s wife,” outgoing Prime Minster Mute B. Egede said Monday. “The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
Copyright © 2025 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.