Vice President JD Vance announced late Tuesday that he’s crashing his wife and the U.S. delegation’s trip to Greenland later this week, following fierce pushback over the second lady’s planned travel to the Arctic island.
While Vance framed his participation as a matter of national security, the timing is convenient. His trip takes him far from the U.S. just as he and other members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet are dealing with the fallout from accidentally discussing the merits of bombing Yemen via Signal chat—with a known journalist present.
Notably, it also places Vance far away from Trump, whom he reportedly implied was unable to grasp the gravity of the wartime plans. Excerpts from the Signal text chain suggest that Vance, or someone appearing to be him, proposed delaying bombing for a month. Now, according to The New York Times, Vance is apparently scrambling to make amends.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance said, according to the leaked texts. “There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices,” he said.
Vance continued, writing, “I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
While it’s unclear if Vance’s last-minute trip to Greenland is directly tied to the leaked Signal chats, it conveniently places him far from the political firestorm. Meanwhile, his Republican colleagues back home face mounting scrutiny over why they shared sensitive strike target information through an app that, despite its encryption, is far from foolproof.
“We’re going to check out how things are going there,” Vance said in a video posted to social media on Tuesday. “Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protect the security of the entire world.”
Beyond distancing himself from the controversy surrounding the Signal group chat, Vance’s visit to Greenland will be notably lower profile than what was originally planned for U.S. officials.
Boys play on a frozen beach in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 11, 2025.
According to NBC News, the Vances will now visit a U.S. Space Force base on the island’s northwest coast to receive a briefing on Arctic security issues. This itinerary keeps them away from any major Greenlandic settlements and reduces the likelihood of encountering residents still angered by the Trump administration’s past threat to annex the island and who opposed the visit.
Danish officials welcomed this revised itinerary. The Associated Press reported that Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen viewed the adjustment as a “de-escalation,” even as Trump’s Cabinet and Vance continue to frame the trip as a national security mission.
Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede had initially criticized Usha Vance, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s trip to the island as “highly aggressive.” Originally, the second lady was set to travel to Greenland with one of her children to attend the territory’s national dogsled race. She had also intended to visit the capital, Nuuk, and Greenlandic heritage sites, NBC reports.
Despite Trump’s well-documented fixation on acquiring Greenland, its residents have firmly rejected the president’s plan.
Egede, for his part, made it clear that his government had no intention of meeting with the U.S. officials. He emphasized that officials had not “extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official.” Egede was particularly critical of Waltz’s presence.
“What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us,” Egede said to a Greenlandic newspaper on Sunday. “His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission—and the pressure will increase.”
It’s a fair question. And doesn’t Waltz, like Vance, have more pressing matters to handle stateside? (Yes, he’s still going, along with Vance.)
Perhaps with Vance and Waltz away for a few days, members of Trump’s Cabinet hope they can shift blame for the Signal chat fiasco to the other major player in the debacle: Pete Hegseth.
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