Greenland's people are bracing for another visit from U.S. President Donald Trump's inner circle, with second lady Usha Vance set to travel to the autonomous Danish territory this week as her husband ratchets up talk about U.S. security and “territorial” interests in the vast Arctic island coveted by the administration.
Greenland’s prime minister has warned of “American aggression” and lamented a “mess” caused by the upcoming visit from Vance, who will be joined by Trump’s national security adviser and energy secretary. On Sunday, Vice President JD Vance — her husband — blasted Denmark for “not doing its job” and "not being a good ally."
“So you have to ask yourself: How are we going to solve that problem, solve our own national security?" JD Vance said on Fox News. “If that means that we need to take more territorial interest in Greenland, that is what President Trump is going to do, because he doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us.”
Trump on Monday took a more conciliatory tone, casting the visit this week as based on “friendliness.”
Denmark is a NATO ally of the United States, and northwestern Greenland already houses the U.S. Pituffik military base that falls under the Pentagon's Space Force.
Danish national police on Sunday sent extra personnel and sniffer dogs to Greenland as part of regular security measures taken during visits by dignitaries. A police spokesperson declined to give details, but news reports said dozens were flown in.
Before the president began his second term in January, a visit by Trump's eldest son heightened concerns in Greenland about possible U.S. ambitions. Donald Trump Jr. told its residents that “we’re going to treat you well” — weeks before March 11 elections that had centered on possible independence from Denmark.
Greenlandic news outlet Sermitsiaq posted images of two U.S. Hercules workhorse military aircraft on the tarmac Sunday in Nuuk, the capital, adding that the planes later departed. News reports said four bulletproof cars had also been flown in.
On her visit, Vance will attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race which features about 37 mushers and 444 dogs, her office said.
Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will also be travelling to Greenland, the White House said.
“The U.S. has a vested security interest in the Arctic region and it should not be a surprise the National Security Advisor and Secretary of Energy are visiting a U.S. Space Base to get first-hand briefings from our service members on the ground," said Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
Greenland is also in the process of political transition. The pro-business Demokraatit party, which favors a slow path to independence, won a surprise victory in the recent elections, outpacing the two left-leaning parties that formed the last government.
Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede, who remains in the post until a new government is formed, acknowledged Sunday on Facebook that there is worry on the island.
The visit of "the wife of the United States vice president and the United States president’s highest security adviser cannot be seen only as a private visit,” he said. “We can already see now, how big a mess it’s caused.”
Egede said there would be no official meetings with the U.S. visitors because a new government has yet to be formed.
In an interview in Sermitsiaq, he was quoted as saying that if allied countries “do not speak out loudly about how the USA is treating Greenland, the situation will escalate day by day, and the American aggression will increase."
He called on Greenland's allies to show support, adding that “the only purpose” of a trip by Waltz is “a demonstration of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood.”
“We have been treated unacceptably,” he wrote on his Facebook account.
The likely next Greenlandic leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Demokraatit, sought to calm nerves and said he was working on building a new coalition government “with the clear goal of creating security for our country and our people.”
“When foreign dignitaries travel to our country on what are called private visits, it rightly causes concern," he wrote on Facebook. “There is no reason to panic. But there is good reason to stand together and to demand respect. I do. And I will continue to do so.”
During a meeting of his Cabinet on Monday, Trump said the visit by the second lady and other U.S. officials was “not provocation” and insisted, “This is friendliness.”
“A lot of people from Greenland” would “like to see something happen with respect to they’re being properly protected and properly taken care of. They’re calling us. We’re not calling them," Trump said.
He suggested that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio might soon be making a trip to Greenland, adding “we’ve been invited” because Greenland’s residents “have been somewhat abandoned.”
“I think Greenland’s going to be something that maybe is in our future,” Trump said. “I think it’s important. It’s important from the standpoint of international security.”
“If you look at the ships outside of Greenland, you have Russia, you have China, you have lots of different people and lots of different places. It cannot go on the way it is. It’s not going to go on the way it is,” Trump said.
Pressed on who was inviting U.S. officials to Greenland, Trump said, “people from Greenland are asking us to go there” and that “some officials” were among those doing so.
Trump had mused during his first term about buying the world’s largest island, even as Denmark insisted it wasn’t for sale. The people of Greenland have also firmly rejected Trump’s plans.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. will come to control Greenland while insisting he supports the idea for strategic national security reasons — not with an eye toward American expansionism.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in a statement Sunday reported by Danish broadcaster DR, said: “We want to cooperate with the Americans. But it must be a cooperation based on the fundamental values of sovereignty and respect between countries and peoples.”
On Monday, Foreign Minister Lares Lokke Rasmussen told the broadcaster Greenland was “open to tourists,” but that the visit by U.S. was “problematic at this time because they are not random tourists.”
“It's a charm offensive aimed at pulling Greenland over towards the U.S.,” he said.
In Brussels, a spokesperson for the European Commission said Denmark, a member of the European Union, had the bloc's full support.
“We will continue to uphold the principles of national sovereignty, the territorial integrity of our borders, and the UN charter. These are universal principles that we stand by, and we will not stop defending them, all the more so if the territorial integrity of our member States of the European Union is questioned,” Anitta Hipper said.
Greenland straddles strategic air and sea routes in the North Atlantic and is home to the Pituffik Space Base, which supports missile warning and space surveillance operations.
Greenland, whose population of 56,000 people are mostly from Indigenous Inuit backgrounds, also has large deposits of the rare-earth minerals needed to make everything from mobile phones to renewable energy technology.
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Keaten reported from Geneva and Gera from Warsaw, Poland. Lorne Cook in Brussels, Aamer Madhani and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
Boys play on a frozen beach in Nuuk, Greenland, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
FILE - Usha Vance attends a campaign rally, Nov. 1, 2024, in Selma, N.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce, File)
