Vice President JD Vance and other top U.S. officials are scheduled to arrive on Friday in Greenland, where locals have expressed deep unease about the visit after President Trump vowed to acquire the island “one way or the other.”
Mr. Vance is being joined on the one-day trip by Usha Vance, his wife; Chris Wright, the energy secretary; Michael Waltz, the embattled national security adviser; and Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, according to the White House.
The trip changed in recent days after an earlier announcement was met with backlash in Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. Initially, Ms. Vance, the second lady, was expected to visit with Mr. Waltz. Ms. Vance also planned to attend a dogsled race in southern Greenland. Mr. Vance was not included in the plans.
One travel agency in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, said that it would deny a U.S. request for Ms. Vance to visit its office. The organizers of the dog sled race made clear they had not invited her. And the prime minister of Greenland, Mute B. Egede, said in an indignant statement that there would be no meetings between U.S. officials and Greenland’s government.
In a video posted on social media Tuesday after that backlash, Mr. Vance said he had decided to accompany his wife. “I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself,” Mr. Vance said, grinning.
The larger delegation now plans to only visit the Pituffik Space Base, once called Thule Air Base, a seven-decade-old installation operated by U.S. forces in the remote northwestern reaches of Greenland, well within the Arctic Circle. They are not expected to stop in the capital or other parts of the island.