{"id":40235,"date":"2025-03-26T17:48:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T22:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=40235"},"modified":"2025-03-26T22:52:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T03:52:41","slug":"trump-shifts-greenland-approach-amid-blowback-signal-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=40235","title":{"rendered":"Trump shifts Greenland approach amid blowback, Signal scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What looked like a Trump administration charm offensive in its gambit to take over Greenland, billed as a cultural heritage tour led by second lady Usha Vance, has turned into something different with the inclusion of her husband and the explosion of a national security scandal<\/u><\/a> at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planned trips this week to Greenland\u2019s capital, Nuuk, and a dogsledding race were canceled in favor of a more limited trip to visit American military installations on the island. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians in Greenland and Denmark, which officially owns the territory, were already lashing out against the official U.S. visit, given President Trump\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>expansionist rhetoric. The initial inclusion of national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright raised security and economic concerns in Greenland, an island rich in minerals and strategically located amid growing geopolitical tensions over the Arctic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid the blowback from a bombshell Atlantic report<\/u><\/a> on its editor\u2019s inclusion in a Trump administration war plans Signal group chat, Vice President Vance\u2002<\/u><\/a>on Tuesday announced he would join his wife on the trip<\/u><\/a>, saying tongue in cheek that he didn\u2019t want her to have all the fun by herself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denmark Foreign Minister Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen told Danish public broadcaster DR he was supportive of the itinerary changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very positive that the Americans have canceled their visit among Greenlandic society. They will only visit their own base, Pituffik, and we have nothing against that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hill has reached out to Vance\u2019s office to see if Waltz and Wright are part of the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is apparently smoothing over tense relations between the NATO allies; U.S. officials traveling overseas to American military postings is typically noncontroversial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Vance\u2019s inclusion in the trip underscores Trump\u2019s fixation on taking the island \u2014 an effort for which he has not ruled out using force or coercion<\/u><\/a>. And the vice president\u2019s disdain for Europe, further laid bare in the Signal chat, indicates the Trump administration is not easing its combative approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way Trump is basically insisting to capture Greenland, we can know that it is of strategic importance for all the reasons we know,\u201d said Nicolas Tenzer, senior fellow based in Paris with the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do not understand the method. \u2026 The leaked things that appeared in the discussions, the Trump administration seems to have a kind of contempt for Europe, Europe doesn\u2019t matter. And it seems that for the Trump administration, all the small or middle-size countries are like pawns in a kind of game that Trump is playing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vance is outspoken in his view that Europe is profiteering from American military and security dominance. But in an extraordinary look at his thoughts behind closed doors, Vance\u2019s remarks reported by The Atlantic demonstrated his deep-seated disdain for Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just hate bailing Europe out again,\u201d he said in a group chat that was part of deliberations over whether to launch an attack on the Houthis in Yemen as they attacked commercial shipping and U.S. military ships in the Red Sea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, also included in the chat, sent messages agreeing with Vance, saying he shared the vice president\u2019s \u201cloathing of European free-loading. It\u2019s PATHETIC.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t surprise anyone here,\u201d Ian Lesser, distinguished fellow with the German Marshall Fund and head of its office in Brussels, said of Vance\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it will reinforce existing concerns and perhaps dash hopes that anti-European views were not so widely shared in the administration.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vance and Hegseth\u2019s positions reflect Trump\u2019s own criticisms against Europe: Its governments have failed to meet their responsibilities over defense spending and have taken advantage of the U.S. economically. And the president\u2019s fixation on Greenland falls in line with his criticisms that Europe is unfit to care for its own security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump first proposed taking over Greenland in his first term, and his rhetoric has only escalated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne way or the other, we\u2019re going to get it,\u201d Trump said during a speech to Congress on March 4. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vance\u2019s visit to Pituffik Space Base in Greenland will put the vice president on America\u2019s northernmost installation, which supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance missions, according to the Pentagon. It\u2019s home to the 821st Space Base Group, part of the U.S. Space Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly significant as it\u2019s a very high level-visitor, and it\u2019s one of his first international trips,\u201d said Rebecca Pincus, director of the Polar Institute at the Wilson Center. \u201cI think it points to the attention that is being paid to Greenland and Greenland\u2019s strategic significance, and in particular the security dimensions of Greenland\u2019s significance to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the U.S. presence at the site dates back to the early 1950s, and it was a critical front line during the Cold War, it has taken on increased importance in the competition and defense against Russia and China\u2019s military and technological investments in the Arctic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. base hosts a 10,000-foot runway, a deep-water port, radar system that points north and a satellite receiving station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s this really interesting symbol of \u2014 it\u2019s an artifact of the Cold War, but it\u2019s also this incredibly important point for emerging competitive domains like space,\u201d Pincus said, describing all aspects of life driven by the freezing temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an incredibly harsh environment, and the ability to operate a base up there is unique and it takes a lot of effort.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vance, in a video message posted on social media Tuesday announcing he would join the trip, said the point of his visit is to \u201ccheck out what\u2019s going on with the security there of Greenland.\u201d He said the island \u2014 which has a population of 57,000 people and is largely covered by ice \u2014 is a primary target for adversaries looking to threaten the U.S. and Canada. He accused Denmark of failing to take Greenland\u2019s security seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it\u2019s important to protecting the security of the entire world,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Denmark announced it was increasing its defense spending<\/u><\/a> and is on track to put 3 percent of its gross domestic product toward its defense budget, passing NATO\u2019s baseline commitment of 2 percent. In January, Copenhagen announced more than $2 billion specifically for defense spending in the Arctic, a nod to focusing security on Greenland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. and Denmark have a bilateral defense agreement that was expanded in 2004, in consultation with Greenland. Independence movements on the island are growing, and Trump\u2019s fixation on owning the island seems to be inspiring a greater desire for autonomy among the population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only 6 percent of Greenlanders surveyed in January<\/u><\/a> favored joining the U.S., with an overwhelming 84 percent wanting full sovereignty from Denmark; 45 percent of respondents viewed Trump\u2019s rhetoric as a \u201cthreat,\u201d while 43 percent saw it as an \u201copportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greenland\u2019s top politicians rebuked the Trump administration\u2019s initial delegation announcement, with Greenland\u2019s Prime Minister M\u00fate Bourup Egede calling it \u201chighly aggressive.\u201d<\/u><\/a> Jens-Frederik Nielsen, leader of the Demokraatit party and poised to be the country\u2019s next prime minister, said the visit showed a \u201clack of respect for the Greenlandic people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Greenlanders I talked to were insulted that we were talking in this way about their own land as if they\u2019re not even there, as if we can just purchase this and buy this as if they are just an object,\u201d Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said during a Senate hearing last month examining U.S. policy options on the island. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we are trying to solidify our relationship with them, especially in some postindependence position, we are burning those bridges. We are sowing sense of distrust right now, that I think would make it even harder for us to be able to achieve that later.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What looked like a Trump administration charm offensive in its gambit to take over Greenland, billed as a cultural heritage tour led by second lady Usha Vance, has turned into something different with the inclusion of her husband and the explosion of a national security scandal at home.  Planned trips this week to Greenland\u2019s capital, Nuuk, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":40236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[31910,1388,1230],"class_list":["post-40235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-greenland","tag-scandal","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40238,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40235\/revisions\/40238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}