Vice President JD Vance predicted that Greenland would voluntarily partner with the United States amid talks of acquiring the island.
“If the people of Greenland were willing to partner with the United States, and I think that they ultimately will partner with the United States, we could make them much more secure,” Vance said. “We could do a lot more protection.”
“This has to happen,” he added. “The reason it has to happen — I hate to say it — is because our friends in Denmark have not done their job in keeping this area safe.”
The remarks came during a high-profile visit to the Pituffik Space Base, a U.S. facility on the island’s northwest coast, which is otherwise a Danish territory.
Denmark, the vice president argued, hasn’t done a good enough job securing Greenland from Russian and Chinese encroachment, leaving it vulnerable and in need of a U.S. takeover.
“What we think is going to happen is that the Greenlanders are going to choose, through self-determination, to become independent of Denmark,” Vance said. “And then we’re going to have conversations with the people of Greenland from there.”
Accompanied by second lady Usha Vance, he left Washington, D.C., at 6 a.m. Eastern time for a six-hour flight to the military base. Others on the flight included Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UH), embattled National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and former Homeland Security Adviser Julia Nesheiwat, Waltz’s wife.
Usha and Waltz were previously scheduled to be in Greenland on Friday without the vice president but drew blowback from the island’s politicians.
“We are now at a level where it can in no way be characterized as a harmless visit from a politician’s wife,” Prime Minister Múte Egede told a Greenlandic outlet.
JD Vance then announced he would visit himself, becoming the first sitting vice president to set foot in Greenland.
“You know, there was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her,” Vance said in a video post to X on Tuesday.
“I’m going to visit some of our guardians in the space force on the northwest coast of Greenland. And also, just check out what’s going on with the security there,” Vance continued.
Trump and administration officials have publicly and repeatedly shared their interest in acquiring the strategically located and mineral-rich island. Their ideas regarding Greenland have thrown an international spotlight on the Danish territory, which has a permanent population of just 57,000.
Waltz’s presence, in particular, irked Egede.
“What is the security adviser doing in Greenland?” the prime minister said. “The only purpose is to show a demonstration of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood. He is Trump’s confidential and closest adviser, and his presence in Greenland alone will certainly make the Americans believe in Trump’s mission, and the pressure will increase after the visit.”
During Friday’s visit, the Vances received a briefing on Arctic security matters and met with U.S. service members.
It was 3 degrees below zero outside when they landed at the base located 750 miles inside the Arctic Circle.
“It’s cold as s*** in here,” Vance said upon entering a mess hall where U.S. Space Force Guardians were seated at long tables for lunch. “Nobody told me.”
“The president is really interested in Arctic security, as you all know,” Vance told the troops before sitting to eat with them. “And it’s only going to get bigger over the coming decades.”
President Donald Trump made that point himself Friday during remarks inside the Oval Office.
“We need Greenland; it’s very important for international security,” the president said. “We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of ‘do you think we can do without it.’ We cannot.”
There are Russian and Chinese ships near the coast of the island, Trump added, meaning that U.S. control is needed not only for domestic security but for international security.
“We’re talking about world peace,” he said.
Vance addressed that issue during his own afternoon press conference, taking a slightly softer approach and saying he thought the people of Greenland would voluntarily “partner” with the U.S. without coercion.
“We do not think that military force is ever going to be necessary,” Vance said. “We think this makes sense, and because we think the people of Greenland are rational and good, we think we’re going to be able to cut a deal, Donald Trump-style, to ensure the security of this territory and also the United States of America.”
However, the vice president, who is known for his relatively isolationist views, said that Denmark has left Greenland “less secure” than it was in past decades.
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Russia and China are interested in shipping lanes and minerals in the Arctic passageways in and around Greenland, which Vance said the U.S. and its allies must take more seriously in the future.
“Too often, our allies in Europe have not kept pace,” he said. “They haven’t kept pace with military spending, and Denmark has not kept pace in devoting the resources necessary to keep this base, to keep our troops, and in my view, to keep the people of Greenland safe from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China, and from other nations.”
