Vice President JD Vance will be joining his wife Usha when she travels with a U.S. delegation to Greenland later this week.
In a video shared Tuesday to social media, Vance said he "didn't want her to have all that fun by herself" and has decided to accompany the Second Lady on the trip. While Usha has said she's going to attend a junior dogsled race, the vice president said he will be meeting with U.S. Space Force guardians stationed in Greenland and also "check out" the security of the island.
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"A lot of other countries have threatened Greenland, have threatened to use its territories and its waterways to threaten the United States, to threaten Canada, and of course to threaten the people of Greenland," Vance said in the video. "So we're gonna check out how things are going there."
The trip comes in the aftermath of President Donald Trump's comments saying the U.S. should acquire Greenland for "national security purposes." The remarks sparked backlash from Greenland officials, including Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede, who pushed back on the president's comments and stood by Greenland's autonomy.
"Greenland is ours," he said earlier this month. "We do not want to be Americans, nor Danes; we are Greenlanders. The Americans and their leaders must understand that. We are not for sale and cannot just be taken. Our future is decided by us in Greenland."
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Vance, on Tuesday, doubled down on President Trump's stance, saying the U.S. wants to "reinvigorate" the security of Greenland because it's important to the global security.
"Unfortunately, leaders in both America and in Denmark I think ignored Greenland for far too long," Vance said. "That's been bad for Greenland. It's also been bad for the security of the entire world. We think we can take things in a different direction, so I'm gonna go check it out.
Greenland is not a fully independent nation; rather, it is an autonomous region of Denmark. Greenland has its own parliament and governance but relies on Denmark for its currency and national security.
The large, mostly ice-covered island has 56,000 residents and is also home to the United States' Pituffik Space Base.
