Visiting Greenland, Vance finds the weather and reception chilly

President Trump is not subtle in his claim that the US would somehow “get” Greenland, repeating on Friday that the US “can't live without it.”

By the time he uttered those words in his oval office, the highest level of American political expedition ever to step into the vast territory had already landed to inspect the real estate outlook. But they were trapped inside a fence at a remote frozen US air force base, the only place where protesters could not appear.

Leading by Vice President JD Vance, American visitors quickly discovered what past administrations had learned in the 1860s. Weather conditions are as forbidden as politics. It was minus three degrees when Vance's plane landed in midday sunlight 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

Mr. Vance wore jeans and a hoodie, but no hats or gloves. “No one told me,” he told the army of Pitafik Space Station as he entered their chaos hall for lunch. The US Space Force Guardian, who had been doing what was once known as Thule Air Force Base after World War II, started laughing.

But for all the humor, the trip was a passive reminder of Trump's determination to fulfill his territorial ambitions, regardless of obstacles. “We have to have Greenland. That's not a question of 'Do you think we can do it without it?”, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. you can't. ”

In fact, of the four territories Trump has discussed about the acquisition of Greenland, the Panama Canal, Canada and Gaza, it is Greenland that he appears to be the most determined. Perhaps it's much larger than Mexico and a vast expanse of territory. Perhaps it is his resolve to have a strategic place, or an American “sphere of influence,” a very 19th century view of how great powers deal with each other.

But one of the mysteries that hang on Vancetour is how willing Trump is to go to achieve his goals. It was a question since early January when Trump, who was waiting for his inauguration, was asked whether he would eliminate economic or military enforcement to get him on his own path. “I'm not going to commit to it,” he said. “You might have to do something.”

From the time of William McKinley, who engaged in Spanish-American wars in the late 19th century and gained control of the United States in the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico, the US presidential election blatantly threatened the use of armed forces to broaden the borders of the country's territorial areas. And Friday's visit seemed designed to make it clear without repeating the threat at all.

Vance is the first vice president to visit a land that Americans have longed for over a century. The fact that he was accompanied by suffering national security adviser Michael Waltz and energy secretary Chris Wright was clearly designed to highlight the strategic rationale Trump cites as justification for his territorial ambitions.

Prior to the visit, Greenland leaders suggested that Waltz's presence, in particular, was viewed as a show of Trump's offensive intentions.

“What are national security advisers doing in Greenland?” Múte Bourup Egede, Greenland's 38-year-old prime minister, told local newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday. “The only purpose is to demonstrate our strength.”

Eged and other Greenland officials have made it clear that Americans are not welcome to visit. The White House had to scrap the well-intentioned tour by Usha Vance, the wife of the vice president, who had planned to attend a dog sled race and have conversations with the regular Greenlander. The visit was moved to space force bases as it was revealed that roads around the capital Nuuk lined up with protesters. There, they ensured that the distance from the population center and the high fence was not visible objection.

Trump is not wrong when he argues that there are strategic benefits to acquiring territory. Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward, under Andrew Johnson, were negotiating a 1868 purchase of territory for more than $5 million. But the transaction never happened. Harry Truman wanted post-World War II territory, and realized that if he didn't control it, it would make the Soviets more advantageous and make the United States more vulnerable to Soviet submarines.

Today, Greenland is the site of surface and undersea competition between China and Russia for access to the Arctic, a territory that has significantly increased its military and commercial importance since global warming moved polar routes. And Trump has revealed he is interested in Greenland's undeveloped mineral reserves and rare earths, as he is in Ukraine, Russia and Canada.

“When you look at the Earth, you see why Russians and Chinese people prefer not to control this,” said Doug Bandau, a senior fellow at the Libertarian Cato Institute in Washington. “But we don't need to own it to protect it and prevent them from taking control.”

“We want Greenland's resources, but in today's world we can buy resources.” And by expanding America's presence, he was able to protect him from increasing the influence of China or Russia without taking control of the land.

But Trump sees the world through the eyes of real estate developers, and he clearly values ​​control of his territory. In his inaugural address, he spoke about the “destiny of the Manifesto” and praised McKinley. The portrait of James K. Polk, along with other past presidential choices, made it on the walls of his oval office. He was the president who oversaw much of America's expansion to the West Coast.

Vance's audience was not the Greenlanders but the US military after his wife's trip was turned into a vice president's mission. But before he returned to the plane and returned to Washington's warm climate, he was clearly talking to a larger audience when he claimed he would be a much better steward for Greenland than Denmark for hundreds of years.

“Be honest,” he said. “The surrounding area, which is this base, is less secure than it was 30 or 40 years ago, as China and Russia have a great interest in Greenland, this base in the work of brave Americans here, and some of our allies are not maintained.”

He accused that Denmark and much of Europe “have not adapted to military spending and that Denmark has not kept its base, its troops and, in my view, has not walked to dedicated the resources it needs to keep the people of Greenland safe from many offensive invasions from Russia, China and China.”

It was a surprising public criticism of NATO's allies, but it was more gentle than what Vance had said to his national security colleagues about his European partners in a signal chat that was released earlier in the week.

“Our message to Denmark is very simple. We're not doing a good job from the people of Greenlanders,” Vance said, except to take the Greenlanders away from Denmark. “You're underinvested with the people of Greenland and you're not invested in this incredibly beautiful land security architecture filled with incredible beautiful people.”

In his interaction with reporters, Vance appears to acknowledge that his willingness to acquire territory is as much related to Trump as the threat to national security. “You can't ignore this place,” he said at one point. “We cannot ignore the desires of the president, but most importantly, what we have said before is the Russian-China invasion in Greenland.”

“When the president says he has to have Greenland, he says the island is not safe,” he said. “A lot of people are interested in it. A lot of people are playing around,” he said carefully that the decision on who to partner with was Greenland's decision. (Trump himself does not place it on such voluntary terms.)

Just before he left, Vance was asked if a military plan had been drafted to take Greenland if he refused to become American guardian.

“I don't think it's going to require military strength,” he said. “We think Greenlanders are reasonable and good, and we think we can cut down on Donald Trump-style deals to ensure the security of this territory.”