Vice President J.D. Vance backed President Donald Trump’s recent remarks about annexing Greenland during a visit to the territory, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
During his speech to Congress earlier in March, Trump described Greenland as a “very large piece of land and very, very important for military security.”
“We need it really for international world security,” Trump said at the time. “And I think we’re going to get it one way or the other,” he added, without elaborating.
On Friday, March 28, Vance echoed Trump, noting the importance of Greenland to “Arctic security.”
Vance criticized the Danish government while speaking to service members at Pituffik Space Base, a U.S. Space Force base on the northwestern coast of Greenland. In his remarks, the vice president suggested Russia and China would make a move on Greenland and that the country is “not safe,” per Politico.
“Our message to Denmark is very simple — you have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance said, per NBC News. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful land mass.”
“I think that you’d be a lot better coming under the United States security umbrella than you have been under Denmark’s security umbrella,” he added. “Because what Denmark’s security umbrella has meant is, effectively, they’ve passed it all off to brave Americans and hope that we would pick up the tab.”
“When the President says, ‘We’ve got to have Greenland,’ he’s saying this island is not safe. A lot of people are interested in it. A lot of people are making a play,” he said, suggesting other foreign powers’ interests.
“We hope that they choose to partner with the United States because we’re the only nation on earth, that will respect their sovereignty and respect their security because their security is very much our security,” he concluded.
The U.S. does offer protection to the nation under a 1950 agreement. As a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, Greenland is protected under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an alliance of which the U.S. remains a founding member of … at least for now.
The Trump administration is reportedly interested in Greenland not only strategically, but also for its rich mineral resources, in particular, uranium and sodalite. The Guardian reports that the Trump administration hopes to mine these minerals, as does Australian mining company Energy Transition Minerals. The company’s mining license was withdrawn after a 2021 election, when Greenland banned uranium mining, but an American annexation could change that.
Despite the company’s potential mining interests, the Australian government has yet to express interest in annexing Greenland.
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However, locals fear that a U.S. annexation under Trump could seriously alter their traditional way of life. Outgoing Greenland Prime Minister Múte B. Egede previously stated in January 2025 that “Greenland is not for sale,” with the government further confirming in a recent Facebook post that no invitations had been extended to members of the Trump administration.
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