Vice President JD Vance and other senior Trump administration officials arrived at a U.S. military base in Greenland on Friday − hundreds of miles away from any Greenlandic officials or a major civilian population.

Vance, his wife, Usha; national security adviser Mike Waltz; and Energy Secretary Chris Wright traveled to the Danish territory as President Donald Trump continues to openly talk about acquiring Greenland.
At the base, Vance cracked jokes about the cold and troops undertaking a “polar bear plunge,” a dunk in Greenland’s icy waters.

“As you’ve heard, we may have some interest in Greenland from the Trump administration,” he told troops.
Back in Washington, Trump was more direct.

“We need Greenland, very importantly for international security,” he said in the Oval Office during Vance’s visit. “We have to have Greenland.”
“It’s not a question of, ‘Do you think we can do without it?’ We can’t.”

Speaking to reporters, Vance lashed out at Europe and Denmark, saying both “have not done their job in keeping Greenland safe.”

“We need to have more of a position in Greenland,” he said.

But Vance retreated from Trump’s past suggestions that the U.S. could take control of the island by force, saying Greelanders themselves would choose to split from Denmark.