Trump shifts Greenland approach amid blowback, Signal scandal
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’s capital, Nuuk, and a dogsledding race were canceled in favor of a more limited trip to visit American military installations on the island.
Politicians in Greenland and Denmark, which officially owns the territory, were already lashing out against the official U.S. visit, given President Trump’s 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.
Amid the blowback from a bombshell Atlantic report on its editor’s inclusion in a Trump administration war plans Signal group chat, Vice President Vance on Tuesday announced he would join his wife on the trip, saying tongue in cheek that he didn’t want her to have all the fun by herself.
Denmark Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told Danish public broadcaster DR he was supportive of the itinerary changes.
"I think it's 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," he said.
The Hill has reached out to Vance's office to see if Waltz and Wright are part of the trip.
It is apparently smoothing over tense relations between the NATO........
© The Hill
