United States Vice President Jd Vance and his wife, the second USha Vance lady, will travel to Greenland on Friday (28), as announced by the White House, to visit an American military base on the island.
What the White House initially characterized as a visit of the second lady to learn more about the island’s culture, that President Donald Trump openly talks about attaching, rapidly changed content-with the leader of the Danish Dane -utonomous Dane Territory, describing it as “highly aggressive.”
As Jd Vance watched the indignation with his wife’s trip growing, he decided to join her, a tall White House official told CNN .
“It was a combination of a little commotion of Danish leaders combined with Vance wanting to go for a while,” said the employee, who added that the vice president argued that if the Danish and island leaders would be “nervous” about their wife’s visit, they could be nervous about him and his entourage traveling to the territory.
“I decided I didn’t want her to have so much fun alone and so I will join her,” Vance said in a video announcing her participation earlier this week.
Vance’s last-minute decision raises US delegation visit, with the vice president becoming the highest US officer to visit Greenland and, in doing so, traveling more north than any senior American leader was once on an official visit, the White House employee said.
But the shortened trip also carries a more openly militaristic content and keeps American visitors isolated from any planned protests.
The Vance, which are coming out early on local time, will visit the US Space Force Station in Pituffik, on the northwest coast of Greenland, 1,600 km from the capital Nuuk, waiving the original plans of Usha Vance and any similarity of cultural exchange.
The vice president is expected to receive a private report on how space force helped boost US national security interests and talk to the press.
Vance’s first trip abroad-for conferences in Paris and Germany-was remarkable for his hard rhetoric over Europe, a point of view reinforced by his texts revealed this week in a private signal chat about military action in Yemen.
“Unfortunately, Danish leaders have spent decades by mistreating the people of Greenland, treating them as second-class citizens and allowing the island’s infrastructure to fall into disuse. Expect the vice president to emphasize these points as well,” said the high White House employee.
The stop at the base highlights part of the logic behind Trump government ambitions to Greenland: its strategic importance in frozen superior latitudes, where competition with Russia and China is fierce.
And the visit to the American military base well above the Arctic Polar Circle will largely avoid any potentially embarrassing incidents between Vance and public members or government officials, many of whom have openly spoke out against the original USHA Vance plans.
Protests were planned in the capital Nuuk, where about one third of the Greenlanders live, and in the second largest city in Greenland, Sisimiut, where a dog -pulled trench race is taking place.
“Trump’s conversation about annexation and the Vances visit united the Greenlanders in challenge, with the population coming together to protest,” said Dwayne Ryan Menezes, director of the Think Tank Polar Research and Policy Initiative, based in the United Kingdom, to CNN by email.
“The vances clearly realized that if they visited Nuuk or Sisimiut, the strategy would go out of Culatra even more than it came out: it would be a disaster of public relations, as all filming would probably show protesters with the type we saw earlier this month (“ make America leave ”), and expose to the US electorate the misinformation they received about what the Grooenlands have received about what the Grooenques. They wanted Greenland to join the US, ”he said.
The White House employee countered this statement, telling the CNN : “The itinerary changes had nothing to do with any potential protests.”
The employee argued that the original plans of Usha Vance were discarded because her programming was not compatible with her husband’s agenda.
The visit to Nuuk, for example, was out of the question because Greenland is still forming his government after the recent elections and has no employees on site to receive him, the White House official said.
A visit “far from any greenland person”
But the change in plans also seemed to remove the possibility of an open diplomatic fight between the US and Denmark, whose leaders said they offered no official invitation to Usha Vance and pointed out that the island is in the middle of a delicate political season while trying to form its new administration.
A new coalition should be announced on Friday.
“There must be a space in which politicians can negotiate to form a government,” said Ulrik Pram Gad, senior researcher at the Danish Institute of International Studies. “And if you, as a foreign power, are imposed on this process, it is felt as aggression,” he added
Gad stated that Vance going to Pituffik space base. “From a Greenland perspective, it is much less aggressive because it is a place where Greenlandes are used to American authorities. It’s far from any Greenland person, basically.”
Usha Vance has remained widely above the political fight since her husband took office, gathering a small team of employees, transferring her three children to life at the Naval Observatory and settling on the public role, to which she will have her own platform and responsibilities.
His original visit to Greenland for the dog -pulled Trenó race seems to have originated from an invitation from American Daybreak, a group founded by Tom Dans, who worked on Arctic issues in the first Trump government.
“As a sponsor and supporter of this event, I encouraged and invited the second lady and other high administration officials to participate in this monumental race. This visit always intended to be purely personal by nature and in the spirit of friendship between our two nations,” Dans wrote as “very disappointed with negative and hostile reaction” to visit.
Race organizers said they did not invite Usha Vance specifically, but anyone could participate.
But Sisimiut residents planned to silently demonstrate the visit by turning their backs on their entourage, according to the Greenish newspaper Sermitsiaq.
“In general, I think most Greenlandes are relieved that the unofficial visit to Sisimiut and Nuuk has been canceled. Personally, I think it’s a great victory for Greenland,” said Jakob Nordstrøm, who drives a local business in Nuk.
“Most Greenlanders receive tourists from the United States, but obviously this was not a tourist visit,” said Nordstrøm.
American authorities minimized the role that potential protests played in changing the plans for the trip. A person close to JD Vance said he wanted to go to the island since Donald Trump Jr. returned from a visit earlier this year and “delighted about how cool it was.”
“Vice President JD Vance and the second Usha Vance lady are proud to visit the Pituffik space base in Greenland on Friday,” said Taylor Van Kirk, Vance’s press secretary.
“As the vice president said, previous US leaders have neglected Arctic safety, while Greenland’s Danish rulers have neglected their security obligations to the island. Greenland’s security is critical to ensure the safety of the rest of the world, and the vice president is eager to learn more about the island,” he added.
The US consulate in Nuuk refused to comment, referring the questions to the vice president’s office.
The delegation should also join the National Security Counselor Mike Waltz – who was at the center of this week’s scandal on tall Trump office staff discussing ymen attacks on a signal chat that included a reporter – and energy secretary Chris Wright, as well as Republican Senator Mike Lee, an advocate of Trump’s desire to control Greenland.
White House officials have argued for months that the president’s fixation to acquire Greenland has double benefits, both economical and national security.
The territory contains vast stocks of rare land essentials for high -tech industries, but the White House also believes American control would help contain Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic region.
Trump has increased his rhetoric in recent months, insisting that his administration will acquire the territory, despite the leaders of Greenland and Denmark repeatedly make it clear that the island is not on sale.
This content was originally published in US deputy travel to Greenland amid Trump’s attachment threats on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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