UPDATE (March 25, 2025, 5:15 p.m. ET): Vice President JD Vance announced on Tuesday that he will also be traveling to Greenland, joining his wife, Usha, and touring the American military base there alongside other members of the Trump administration.
Second lady Usha Vance will travel to Greenland on Thursday, the White House announced, as part of a diplomatic trip to the massive frozen island. By going to a country that President Donald Trump has said he wants to buy or forcibly take, Vance’s visit will put her in the middle of one of the Trump administration’s least diplomatic acts of diplomacy, making it even harder to deny Trump’s blatant bullying.
Vance, who has kept a low profile since her husband, JD Vance, was sworn in as vice president, will be joined by one of the couple’s two sons. She said in an Instagram video that she’s especially looking forward to attending the country’s national dogsled race. “I’m also coming to celebrate the long history of mutual respect and cooperation between our two nations,” she added, “and to express hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years.”
Her mild words do little to paper over the current tensions between the U.S. and Greenland. Trump has been clear that he hopes to acquire the island from Denmark, reportedly at least in part because of how huge it appears on the most common map projection. He’s also hinted that it should be acquired for vague national security reasons or to obtain the minerals under its permafrost. Neither Greenland nor Denmark has been particularly enthusiastic about by Trump’s remarks, even less so after Trump hinted that, if it were not put up for sale, he could take Greenland by force or economic leverage.
Before Vance’s trip commences, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and national security adviser Mike Waltz (the one who reportedly invited The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief into a Signal group where top secret military plans were shared) will also visit Greenland this week. According to The New York Times, Wright and Waltz will tour Pituffik Space Base, America’s northernmost military outpost.
It feels ridiculously unnecessary for Vance to be dragged into this mess as the soft power side of what’s clearly a good cop-bad cop routine. But, then again, the vice presidency has long been regarded as one of the least consequential roles in Washington. By the transitive property alone, the role of the vice president’s spouse must be up there as far as gigs go. Second ladies (or, as of recently, gentlemen) haven’t accumulated the same sort of cache as cultural icons that first ladies have, but that still doesn’t help explain the odd choice of Vance’s first solo destination.
I can’t imagine that Greenland was at the top of Vance’s list of places she wanted to travel as second lady
Politicians in Greenland are ripping apart Vance’s rationale for traveling to Greenland. The country recently held parliamentary elections in which two parties that want independence from Denmark took the top spots. Neither party holds enough seats to claim a majority, and talks to form a new government are ongoing.
Notably, the smaller party has had warm words for the Trump administration, but there’s been little support from the larger public regarding Trump’s overtures. Jens-Frederik Nielsen, head of the larger party in the potential coalition, told the Times, “The fact that the Americans are well aware we are in the middle of negotiations once again shows a lack of respect for the Greenlandic people.”
Outgoing Prime Minister Múte Egede called Vance’s visit a “highly aggressive” attempt to influence the new government and said that “it can in no way be characterized as a harmless visit from a politician’s wife.” Egede said, “What is the security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to show a demonstration of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood.”
Who knows? Maybe Vance really did want to visit Greenland to watch a dog race with her kid. Maybe she got recruited to go simply as a boost to Waltz and Wright’s trip. Whichever it is, Vance is no rube. She’s highly accomplished and sophisticated; that is, she’s smart enough to know that her trip signals support for Trump’s ambitions toward Greenland. She could have declined to go if she didn’t want to send that message.
No offense to the Greenlandic people, but I can’t imagine that Greenland was at the top of Vance’s list of places she wanted to travel as second lady. Greenland knows why she’s there, and her trip likely won’t do anything to foster the “mutual respect and cooperation” she touts in her video.
