Second lady Usha Vance and one of her sons will travel to Greenland on Thursday with a United States delegation.
The trip comes amid President Donald Trump’s aggressive push and threats to acquire the island “one way or the other.” But in the announcement on Sunday, the White House made no mention of Trump’s ambitions or rhetoric, instead highlighting some of the soft power that Usha Vance will focus on during the trip.
The second lady will “visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race,” the announcement read. The U.S. delegation is expected to return from the island, which is part of Denmark, on Saturday.
“Ms. Vance and the delegation are excited to witness this monumental race and celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” the statement said.
Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, will also travel to Greenland with the delegation, according to two Danish news outlets, Berlingske and Jyllands-Posten.
That prospect prompted Greenland’s leader to criticize the visit as an “aggressive” trip.
“We are now at a level where it can in no way be characterized as a harmless visit from a politician’s wife,” Prime Minister Mute Egede said to Sermitsiaq, a news outlet in Greenland, according to a translation. “Because what is the security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to show a demonstration of power to us.”
The White House did not immediately respond to requests to confirm that Waltz was part of the trip. Spokespeople for the Danish and Greenlandic governments did not respond to a request for comment on Usha Vance’s visit.
In a video shared Sunday on Instagram, the second lady, who was a lawyer for a prominent firm until her husband was picked as Trump’s running mate, said she’s looking forward to visiting Greenland in tow with one of her sons to appreciate Greenlandic heritage and traditions.
She specifically highlighted her and her child’s excitement to witness the dogsled race, which she noted the U.S. helps sponsor. It is unclear which of the Vances’ two sons, who are 7 and 5, will participate in the trip. The couple also have a 3-year-old daughter.
“I’ve been reading all about it with my children, and I’m amazed by the incredible skill and teamwork that it takes to participate in this race,” she said in the Instagram post. “I’m also coming to celebrate the long history of mutual respect and cooperation between our nations and to express hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years.”
The second lady’s husband, Vice President JD Vance, has repeatedly praised Greenland’s “incredible natural resources.”
The island territory possesses critical and rare metals needed to build electric vehicles, smartphones, medical imaging equipment, computer chips and wind turbines. Though mining Greenland has so far proved notoriously difficult, its leaders say the territory is open for business to U.S. companies with the money and guts to explore.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex Greenland — which has a population of about 57,000 — threats that have sparked both unease and dismissal among Danish and European authorities. Trump has even suggested that the U.S. itself could take Greenland by force, though the White House and Pentagon quickly backtracked, claiming that was not what he meant.
“We need Greenland for national security and even international security,” Trump said this month during an address to a joint session of Congress. “And I think we’re going to get it one way or the other.”
During an Oval Office meeting this month with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump, when asked about annexing Greenland, said: “I think it will happen.”
But officials in both Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly pushed back, noting that the territory is not for sale. Egede responded to Trump’s remarks to Congress, saying, “We are not for sale and cannot simply be taken.” And Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has also said that Greenland is not for sale.
As The Washington Post reported on Sunday, Trump is prompting Denmark to bolster its defenses in Greenland as U.S. military assets on the island have degraded and the Russians are refurbishing their own Arctic ports.
Usha Vance had traveled to Paris in February and India earlier in March as part of her role as second lady.
