The News
The Trump administration said Tuesday it would scale back a visit by high-profile US delegates to Greenland this week, after the plans triggered intense criticism from Danish and Greenlandic officials.
The White House said the delegation — which includes National Security Advisor Mike Walz, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and second lady Usha Vance — would only visit the US’ military base at Pituffik, cancelling a planned stop at a popular dog-sled race on the island.
Vice President JD Vance will now head the visit: “There was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself!” he said in a video posted to X.
The decision came after Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen criticized the US for putting “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland and Denmark amid concerns that the Trump administration is looking to seize the Arctic island.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to take over the strategic, semi-autonomous Danish territory “one way or the other.”
SIGNALS
Denmark is belatedly ramping up security in Greenland
Russia and China’s growing military presence in the Arctic and Donald Trump’s renewed interest in Greenland have forced Denmark to bolster the island’s depleted security, The Washington Post noted: “We have not invested enough in the Arctic for many years, now we are planning a stronger presence,” the Danish defense minister said in December. Still, “when President Trump says the US needs military control — well, in a sense it already has it,” a Royal Danish Defense College analyst told the paper: A 1951 treaty with Denmark permits the US to maintain military bases on Greenland for mutual defense purposes, although just one remains operational after a sharp decline in America’s footprint there following the Cold War.
Trump could exploit Greenland independence push
Donald Trump’s remarks “have rekindled decades-long debates in Greenland about decolonization and independence,” a Chatham House analyst wrote. “Many politicians and business people in Greenland worry that Trump could try to exploit any push towards independence,” the Financial Times wrote, because secession from Denmark — which contributes more than half of Greenland’s budget — could hurt living standards on the island. Greenland’s center-right Demokraatit party won the island’s most recent election by campaigning on a gradual independence process and a promise to resist Trump, while the runner up, pro-rapid independence centrists seemed more open to the US attention.
Territorial conquest is becoming normalized
The spat is one of many that together signify a crumbling of the post-1945 proscription against seizing territory, an analyst argued in Foreign Affairs. This weakening may be traceable to Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, and current suggestions that Ukrainian territory should be ceded to Russia “further normalize territorial conquest.” In turn, Donald Trump’s threats toward Greenland, Canada, Panama, and Gaza are “worrying steps in the wrong direction.” It’s unclear whether Trump’s statements should be taken at face value, yet they are “creating a permissive space” for other leaders bent on land acquisition, analysts told The Guardian.