Vances set to make a scaled-back, but more political trip to Greenland

By Alayna Treene, Kevin Liptak and Betsy Klein, CNN

(CNN) — Only days after second lady Usha Vance’s trip to Greenland was announced, out are the dogs and mushers.

In is a visit to a US military installation miles away from any civilian population center – with her husband, Vice President JD Vance, tagging along and expected to take aim at the island’s Danish government, according to a senior White House official.

What the White House initially characterized as a visit by the second lady to learn more about the culture of the island, which President Donald Trump openly talks about annexing, quickly became contentious – with the leader of the semiautonomous Danish territory Múte Egede describing it as “highly aggressive.”

As JD Vance watched the outrage over his wife’s trip grow, he decided to join her, the senior White House official told CNN.

“It was a combination of a little bit of commotion from Danish leaders combined with Vance wanting to go for a while,” said the official, who added that the vice president argued that if Danish and island leaders were going to get “worked up” over his wife’s visit, they could get worked up over him, and his entourage, traveling to the territory.

“I decided 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 announcing his participation earlier this week.

Vance’s 11th-hour decision elevates the US delegation visit, with the vice president becoming the highest-ranking US official to visit Greenland, and in so doing, traveling further north than any senior American leader has ever gone on an official visit, the White House official said.

But the shortened trip also carries a more overtly militaristic tenor and keeps the American visitors sequestered away from any planned protests.

The Vances, who are leaving early Friday and returning late that night, will visit the US Space Force outpost at Pituffik, on the northwest coast of Greenland 1,000 miles from the capital of Nuuk, forgoing Usha Vance’s original plans and any semblance of a cultural exchange.

The vice president is expected to receive a private briefing regarding how the Space Force has helped boost US national security interests and speak to the press.

Vance’s first trip abroad – to conferences in Paris and Germany – was notable for his tough rhetoric about Europe, a viewpoint reinforced by his texts revealed this week in a private Signal chat about military action in Yemen. His message on this second trip overseas is expected to strike a similar tone.

“Unfortunately, Danish leaders have spent decades mistreating the Greenlandic people, treating them like second class citizens and allowing infrastructure on the island to fall into disrepair. Expect the Vice President to emphasize these points as well,” the senior White House official said.

The stop at the base highlights some of the rationale behind the Trump administration’s ambitions for Greenland: its strategic importance in the frozen upper latitudes, where competition with Russia and China is fierce.

And the visit to the American military base high above the Arctic Circle will largely avoid any potentially embarrassing incidents between the Vances and either members of the public or government officials, many of whom openly spoke out against Usha Vance’s original plans.

Protests had been planned in the capital Nuuk, where about a third of Greenlanders live, and Greenland’s second largest city Sisimiut, where a dog sled race is taking place.

“Trump’s talk of annexation and the visit of the Vances has united Greenlanders in defiance, with Greenlanders rallying together to protest,” Dwayne Ryan Menezes, director of the UK-based think tank Polar Research and Policy Initiative, told CNN in an email.

“The Vances clearly realised that if they visited Nuuk or Sisimiut, the strategy would backfire even more than it has: it would be a PR disaster, as all footage would likely feature protestors with placards of the sort we saw earlier this month (Yankee Go Home, and Make America Go Away), and would expose to the US electorate the misinformation they were fed about how enthusiastically Greenlanders wished for Greenland to join the US,” he said.

The White House official pushed back on that assertion, telling CNN, “The itinerary changes had nothing to do with any potential protests.”

The official argued that Usha Vance’s original plans were scrapped because her itinerary was not compatible with her husband’s schedule.

Her visit to Nuuk, for example, was off the table because Greenland is still forming its government after recent elections and does not have the officials in place to receive him, the White House official said. Meanwhile, the dogsledding race was in a remote part of Greenland, and installing the vice president’s full security footprint wasn’t possible on just a few days’ notice, they added.

A visit ‘far away from anyone Greenlandic’

But the change in plans also appeared to remove the possibility of an overt diplomatic spat between the US and Denmark, whose leaders said they hadn’t offered any official invitation to Usha Vance and pointed out the island is in the middle of a delicate political season as it tries to form its new administration. A new coalition is expected to be announced Friday.

“There needs to be a space in which politicians can negotiate to form a government,” said Ulrik Pram Gad, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. “And if you, as a foreign power, impose yourself on that process, that is felt as aggression.”

Gad added that Vance going to Pituffik Space Base “from a Greenlandic perspective, is a lot less aggressive, because that’s a place where Greenlanders are used to American officials. It’s far away from anyone Greenlandic, basically.”

Usha Vance has largely remained above the political fray since her husband took office, assembling a small team of staff, transitioning her three children to life at the Naval Observatory, and settling into the public role, for which she will have her own platform and responsibilities.

Her original visit to Greenland for the dogsled race appeared to originate with an invitation from American Daybreak, a group founded by Tom Dans, who worked on Arctic issues in the first Trump administration.

“As a sponsor and supporter of this event I encouraged and invited the Second Lady and other senior Administration officials to attend this monumental race. This visit was always intended to be purely personal in nature and in the spirit of the friendship between our two nations,” Dans wrote on X, describing himself as “very disappointed by the negative and hostile reaction” to the visit.

Organizers for the race said they didn’t invite Usha Vance specifically, but that anyone could attend.

But residents in Sisimiut planned to silently demonstrate her visit by turning their backs to her motorcade, according to Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq.

“In general, I think most Greenlanders are relieved that the unofficial visit to Sisimiut and Nuuk was cancelled. Personally, I think it is a big win for Greenland,” said Jakob Nordstrøm, who runs a local pilot business in Nuuk. “Most Greenlanders welcome tourists from the United States, but obviously this was not a tourist visit,” Nordstrøm said.

American officials have downplayed the role potential protests played in altering plans for the trip. One person close to JD Vance said he had wanted to go to the island since Donald Trump Jr. returned from a visit earlier this year and “raved about how cool it was.”

“Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance are proud to visit the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland this Friday,” said Taylor Van Kirk, Vance’s press secretary. “As the Vice President has said, previous US leaders have neglected Arctic security, while Greenland’s Danish rulers have neglected their security obligations to the island. The security of Greenland is critical in ensuring the security of the rest of the world, and the Vice President looks forward to learning more about the island.”

The US Consulate in Nuuk declined to comment, referring questions to the vice president’s office.

Also set to join the delegation are national security adviser Mike Waltz – who has been at the center of this week’s scandal over top Trump Cabinet officials discussing strikes in Yemen in a Signal chain that included a reporter – and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, as well as Republican Sen. Mike Lee, a vocal supporter of Trump’s desire to control Greenland.

White House officials have argued for months that the president’s fixation with acquiring Greenland has dual benefits, both economic and for national security. The territory holds vast stores of rare earth minerals critical for high-tech industries, but the White House also believes that American control would help curb Russian and Chinese aggression in the Artic region.

Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric in recent months, insisting his administration will acquire the territory despite Greenland and Denmark’s leaders repeatedly making clear the island isn’t for sale.

“We have to have it,” he said on the “VINCE” podcast earlier this week. “And I think we will have it.”

CNN’s Lauren Kent contributed to this story.

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