A delegation of top Trump officials is heading to mineral-rich Greenland — including Energy Secretary Chris Wright — even as officials blast the move as “highly aggressive.”
The trip comes as President Donald Trump moves critical minerals to the forefront of his international policy agenda and assembles a team — tied to the National Energy Dominance Council — to boost domestic mining and processing to counter China.
Vice President JD Vance’s wife Usha is leading the delegation to Greenland this week with her son to learn about the Danish territory’s history and culture, according to the White House. They are also slated to attend a national dogsled race on March 29.
The Energy Department confirmed in an email that Wright is traveling with the group but stopped short of providing details around the timing and what role energy and minerals will play in the trip.
Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in acquiring the Arctic land, which has vast deposits of oil, gas and critical minerals, even though the rugged, ice-covered island has consistently stymied ambitious mining firms and some of the world’s largest oil companies.
“We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” Trump told Greenlanders during a joint address to Congress earlier this month. “I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”
But Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede in an interview with Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday criticized the trip.
“The only purpose is to show a demonstration of power for us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood,” Egede told the newspaper. Egede is also quoted in the article as saying the “very aggressive American pressure against the Greenlandic society is now so serious that the level cannot be raised” and that the “American dream of annexing our country will not come true.”
On Sunday, Vance blasted Denmark for “not doing its job” and “not being a good ally.”
“So you have to ask yourself: How are we going to solve that problem, solve our own national security?” Vance said during an interview with Fox News. “If that means that we need to take more territorial interest in Greenland, that is what President Trump is going to do, because he doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us.”
Denmark is a NATO ally of the United States, and northwestern Greenland already houses the U.S. Pituffik military base, which falls under the Pentagon’s Space Force.
Before the president began his second term in January, a visit by Trump’s eldest son heightened concerns in Greenland about possible U.S. ambitions.
Donald Trump Jr. told its residents, “we’re going to treat you well” — weeks before the territory’s March 11 elections that centered on possible independence from Denmark.
Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, told the Associated Press that the “U.S. has a vested security interest in the Arctic region, and it should not be a surprise the national security adviser and secretary of Energy are visiting a U.S. space base to get first-hand briefings from our service members on the ground.”
Greenland is also in the process of political transition. The pro-business Demokraatit party, which favors a slow path to independence, won a surprise victory in the recent elections, outpacing the two left-leaning parties that formed the last government.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
