TOI correspondent from Washington: Clearly unwelcome in Greenland for its effort to grab the world’s largest island, the US is doubling down on its undiplomatic offensive. The Trump White House on Tuesday intensified the push to take over the Danish territory, asking vice-president JD Vance to accompany his wife Usha on a trip that Copenhagen has said is unwarranted and aggressive.
Vance jovially announced that he did not want his wife to “have all that fun by herself” on what was to be a cultural visit and he would join her for the trip. But in a clear signal beyond the faux mirth about the strategic intent behind the sortie, Usha Vance’s proposed visit with their son to Greenland’s national dogsled race was ditched — after the organisers said she would have to attend as an ordinary spectator. Instead, the Second Couple will visit the US’ Pituffik Space Base on Greenland’s northwest coast for the vice-president to receive a briefing on Arctic security issues and meet with US service members.
Also read: Greenland sees red as Trump sends Usha to ad-Vance US interests
Trump has taken a hardball approach to seizing the island “one way or the other,” as he put it. “We NEED Greenland for international safety and security. We need it. We have to have it… we’re gonna HAVE to have it,” he said on Tuesday, insisting, against all indications and reports, that locals are welcoming US overtures. “We are dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to being properly protected and properly taken care of. They’re calling us, we’re not calling them,” he maintained.
But aside from a few MAGA allies sporting “Make Greenland Great Again” caps agitating against Danish overlordship, majority sentiment in Greenland and Denmark, and indeed all of Europe, appears to be “Make America Go Away” — as one meme put it.
The US is not going away though. If anything, Washington is getting more serious about its Greenland grab amid growing alarm in Europe, which has been stunned by the degree of disdain Trump and his aides have for the Atlantic alliance. Descriptions of Europeans as “pathetic free-loaders” among other epithets inflamed public sentiments in a continent that fueled the rise of America, but Trump and Vance merrily continue to advance US strategic interests, citing threats to Greenland from other countries, which they say could impact the security of the United States, Canada, and Greenland itself.
