VP Vance Will Be Visiting Greenland This Week

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I wish he were visiting Germany or Sweden. It would be fun to watch him get thrown in jail for the all-but-certainty of violating their laws against hate speech.

Just 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle, in Nuuk, the world’s northernmost capital, locals were preparing to receive U.S. Vice President JD Vance with what they were calling the “Arctic cold shoulder,” a nod to the diplomatic fallout sparked by President Donald Trump’s repeated suggestions that the U.S. should take over Greenland.

“We have always looked at America like the nice big brother to help you out and now it’s like the big brother in bullying you,” Anders Laursen, 41, the owner of a local water taxi company, told NBC News on Thursday.

“Growing up you see Hollywood movies, all the heroes and then you feel backstabbed and you feel like an ally that’s just gone the other way round and you’re like, ‘This can’t be happening, this is not the America we knew,’” added Laursen.

Both the length of the trip and itinerary have changed since Sunday’s announcement that second lady Usha Vance was going to visit Greenland along with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and national security adviser Michael Waltz — who has been under fire in recent days for adding Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg into a Signal group chat that detailed U.S. airstrike plans on Yemen.

nitially billed as a cultural trip, Usha Vance had planned to visit Nuuk and attend events, such as a popular annual dog sled race on the sparsely populated island that is home to just 56,000 people.

That changed after her husband said Tuesday that he would join her, an announcement that was met with widespread anger in both Greenland and Denmark, which controlled the island for 300 years until it became a formal territory in 1953. Although Greenland gained home rule in 1979, Copenhagen still controls its foreign and defense policy and contributes just under $1 billion to its economy.

The trip was subsequently shortened to just one day and limited to the U.S. Pituffik Space Base, hundreds of miles from Nuuk and other cities, meaning they will be well out of the way of the locals.

Irene Thor Jeremiassen, a 35-year-old Inuit law student, said she preferred the new itinerary. “I didn’t want to meet him,” she said of JD Vance.

Tungutaq Larsen, 67, attended a demonstration against Trump, whose plans, he said, were “not acceptable here in Greenland.”

“Why do you want to buy a human?” he added. “We are not for sale.”

He said JD Vance would be welcome if he treated Greenlanders like humans, but “if you see us like things without feelings, then you are not welcome here in Greenland.”

The anger nonetheless remains at President Donald Trump, who, since his first term, has repeatedly stated an interest in acquiring the island, two-thirds of which sits above the rapidly melting Arctic Circle, where deposits of rare-earth minerals and potential offshore oil and natural gas remain largely untapped, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

While opinion polls show that almost all Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the United States, there have been some upsides to the heightened American interest, according to Qupanuk Olsen, a member of the island’s parliament.

“It has been like a huge wake-up call for everyone in Greenland,” said Olsen, whose centrist Naleraq Party has called for a referendum on independence from Denmark and favors closer ties with the United States, including a potential free association agreement.

She added that another country showing interest had made people think that they were most likely worth much more than they thought.

However, she said some people feared Greenland would simply be colonized by another country.

“We cannot avoid the U.S., so we need to learn to dance with the U.S.,” Olsen said. “Right now I feel like the U.S. is forcing us to dance together. ‘Come, you are going to dance with me now.’ It would be so much nicer if they said, ‘Would you like to dance?’”

Greenland, she said, was “starting to take the first steps toward independence, so we need to figure out who we are going to dance with in the future.”

“In my opinion, it’s now that we have to start the negotiations with other countries, not just the U.S., we should talk to Canada as well, other countries in Europe as well,” she added.

Trump’s oft-stated desire to take over Greenland “was not funny anymore,” added Laursen, who moved from Denmark 20 years ago.

As a result, he said a lot of companies had refused to host Vance ahead of her visit and there was talk of more anti-American protests on the island, which has in recent weeks seen some of the largest demonstrations ever.

Olsen added that “many people” were relieved that the Vances were only going to the American base.

“They could come another time, in my opinion, maybe not make a big deal about it,” she said. “If they want to learn more about us, they can come discreetly.”

Hate speech in Denmark is outlawed by § 266b of the penal code, colloquially called the racism paragraph (racismeparagraffen), which outlaws threats, mockery and degradation against groups defined by race, skin colour, nationality, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. The law was originally introduced in 1939, prompted by the antisemitism of 1930s Germany, which had spread to Denmark.

The number of charges and convictions under the hate speech law has increased during the 2010s. While there were 24 charges in 2010, the number had doubled to 48 in 2019. The number of convictions rose from 1 to 12 in the same period

We need similar laws in the US, but people think such laws will be used to "silence" Christians and conservatives. And many people vote Republican primarily (or even solely) because they support "releejus freedum", and they fear the Democrats will support such laws (they mostly don't).

If I lived in Groenland I would definitely be greeting her if she came to my door, and I'd be feeling a bit Ushaed ! !.... There's only like 7 people that live there, so the chances would be good. JD should be worrieed I'd try and steal Usha from him... hahaha. She's so lovely.

No dude, her reps canvassed several thousand households across Greenland and not one person wanted to meet her.
And no she's not lovely. She is a spoilt child who (like Patel) is a social climber and found themselves a niche in American society in order to become part of the elite. I care little for Patel, but what makes Usha's story worse is she's a south Indian (like Kamala's mother) who in India are racially discriminated against by northerners based on their darker complexions. the fact she would stand by a man who promotes white nationalism can only mean she is dealing with tremendous self-hate.

Kind of funny you think Usha should divorce JD Vance so flippantly even though they have mulitple children, and the institution of marriage thus seems to mean this little to liberals. JD Vance came from humble origins and I seriously doubt this was ever the plan that Usha thought she was going to become part of some "White Nationalist" power couple, and much less so since she became involved in an Interracial marriage, but liberals of all people can still find a way to connect this like they do all things to WN.

I'm never suggested she divorce him? What I did think is she and her kids should keep a lower profile away from politics. Its terrible optics to see a south Indian woman with mahogany skin openly supporting a man who keeps talking about the great replacement theory. She and her children are literally a living embodiment of what he's against.

You said "Stand by a man", two posts above... i took that to mean divorce, like in the Tammy Wynette song ?.... you're saying though then that Usha Vance should then just go and quietly live in the kitchen and bake cookies ? This also doesn't sound very liberally or empowering.

It's kind of funny they don't have the same problem with Denmark basically owning it, which is also still a "white country," and there was also the whole thing liberals love to complain about at present with Denmark kidnapping the Inuit children and making them go to school (which they haven't been talking much now, at present, conveniently).