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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. The Vice President remarked that “this island is not safe” from Russia and China, 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.
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 … so far.
Jim Watson – Pool/Getty
Despite the company’s potential mining interests, the Australian government has yet to express interest in annexing Greenland.
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.
