Trump Insists Usha Vance's Greenland Visit is About 'Friendliness, Not Provocation'

President Donald Trump is ramping up his pressure campaign to make Greenland part of the U.S., even as Greenland's leaders insist that they are not interested and that the Danish territory is not for sale. This week, the Administration plans to send three members of Trump’s inner circle to visit the island: Second Lady Usha Vance, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Their visit is being viewed by Greenland officials as an escalation in the Trump Administration’s ongoing push to assert control over Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. In a video shared Sunday on Instagram, the Second Lady said she’s looking forward to visiting Greenland with one of her sons “to celebrate the long history of mutual respect and cooperation between our nations” and “to express hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years.”

Greenland's outgoing Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede called the planned visit “highly aggressive” and accused the Trump Administration of using diplomatic engagements as a smokescreen for its ultimate goal: bringing Greenland under U.S. control. “Greenlanders have tried to be diplomatic, but it simply bounces off Donald Trump and his Administration in their mission to own and control Greenland,” he told the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday.

The White House said that Usha Vance is scheduled to attend Greenland’s national dog-sled race and visit other culturally significant sites.

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