Washington — Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance are headed to a U.S. base in Greenland, as the Trump White House eyes the semi-autonomous Danish territory despite opposition from residents and leaders.
National security adviser Mike Waltz will join the Vances, sources familiar with the planning told CBS News. Waltz will travel on Friday, a source said.
The second lady was originally scheduled to visit Greenland in an expanded cultural trip this week, and the vice president announced Tuesday that he’ll be joining her for a shorter trip more focused on U.S. policy and defense. They’ll be spending their time at the Pituffik Space Base, the northernmost U.S. military installation.
“The strategic partnership between the United States and Greenland has long played a vital role in our national and economic security,” the vice president’s office said in announcing the trip change. “During World War II, 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.”
Mr. Trump hasn’t given up on the idea of absorbing Greenland into the U.S., despite opposition from Greenland’s leadership and people. Greenland is an expansive island to the north and east of Canada that’s a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. It’s roughly three times the size of Texas, but mostly covered by ice. Most of its roughly 57,000 people — a population smaller than Carson City, Nevada — live along Greenland’s southern coast.
A recent poll shows 85% of Greenlanders do not want to be part of the United States, and residents who spoke with CBS News ahead of Vance’s visit to a remote U.S. installation on the island — America’s furthest north military base — clearly reflected the sentiments shown in that poll.
“He can’t just take it like that,” said Daniel Rosing, a trainee electrician who said he was proud of being a Greenlander.
And Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Bourup Egede, has called the planned visits from U.S. officials “aggressive.” And Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, said the U.S. is putting “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland.
Despite this opposition, Mr. Trump said earlier this month in a speech before the joint session of Congress that he had “a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland: We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America.”
Mr. Trump said the territory is important to U.S. national security and that his administration is “working with everybody involved to try and get it.”
“And I think we’re going to get it, one way or the other,” Mr. Trump said. “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.”
contributed to this report.
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