Vice President J.D. Vance announced in a video posted Tuesday he will be accompanying his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, on her trip to Greenland this week. President Trump has expressed strong interest in Greenland as a bulwark for U.S. national security by acquiring it as a potential territory from NATO ally Denmark. Usha’s planned attendance at a dogsled race has been cancelled. The Second Lady will now accompany the Vice President to meet with U.S. servicemembers at Pituffik Space Base.
The announcement comes a day after Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede ripped the Trump administration for sending Usha Vance, as well as National Security Advisor Michael Walz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. (France 24 excerpt):
Speaking to Greenlandic daily Sermitiaq, Egede said the “only purpose of the visit was a demonstration of power, and the signal should not be misunderstood”.
“It should be said clearly that our integrity and democracy must be respected without foreign interference,” Egede said in a post on Facebook.
He added that the US delegation’s visit “cannot be seen as just a private visit”.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen also slammed the planned visit, telling broadcaster TV2 it showed “an appetite among Americans that is inappropriate”.
Lokke noted that “there have just been elections in Greenland and there is no Greenlandic government” just as the US delegation was to visit. The general election on March 11 left him heading a caretaker government.
Vance’s video announcement:
Looking forward to visiting Greenland on Friday! pic.twitter.com/p3HslD3hhP
— JD Vance (@JDVance) March 25, 2025
White House statement (via email):
Vice President JD Vance Announces Visit to Pituffik Space Base in Greenland
On Friday, Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance will travel to the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland to receive a briefing on Arctic security issues and meet with U.S. servicemembers. Pituffik Space Base is the Department of Defense’s northernmost installation. The Base, which is operated by the United States Space Force’s 821st Space Base Group, 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. During World War Two, the United States established over a dozen military bases in Greenland to defend the North Atlantic from Nazi incursion. During the Cold War, the United States committed additional resources to Greenland to defend against Soviet missile attacks. In the decades since, neglect and inaction from Danish leaders and past U.S. administrations have presented our adversaries with the opportunity to advance their own priorities in Greenland and the Arctic. President Trump is rightly changing course.
The Vice President and Second Lady’s visit to Pituffik Space Base will take place in lieu of the Second Lady’s previously announced visit to the Avannaata Qimussersu dogsled race in Sisimiut.
President Trump spoke about Greenland in his March 4 Joint Address to Congress:
And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. (Laughter.) We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and, if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America.
We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it. But we need it, really, for international world security. And I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it.
We will keep you safe. We will make you rich. And together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.
It’s a very small population but very, very large piece of land and very, very important for military security.
Excerpt from DoD page for Pituffik Space Base:
Pituffik Space Base (pronounced bee-doo-FEEK), formerly known as Thule Air Base (pronounced too-lee), is located in Greenland—a country within the Kingdom of Denmark and inhabited by approximately 56,000 people. Greenland covers nearly 840,000 square miles; more than 80 percent is covered either by the ice cap or smaller glaciers. Pituffik SB is locked in by ice nine months out of the year, but the airfield is open and operated year round.
Pituffik SB, the DoD’s northernmost installation, is operated by the 821st Space Base Group and part of Space Base Delta 1.
Pituffik SB exists today due to agreements between the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark, specifically addressing mutual defense. Strategically, Pituffik SB’s “Top of the World” vantage point enables Space Superiority. Pituffik SB supports Missile Warning, Missile Defense and Space Surveillance missions from the solid-state phased-array radar operated by the 12th Space Warning Squadron (12 SWS) and Satellite Command and Control through the Pituffik Tracking Station operated by the 23rd Space Operations Squadron, Detachment 1 (Det-1).
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