Vice President J.D. Vance, while on a much-circumscribed trip to Greenland (he never left the U.S. military base there), delivered what he must have thought of as a great pitch for Greenland to become a U.S. territory:
Our message to Denmark is very simple: you have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. ...
We respect the self-determination of the people of Greenland. But my argument again to them is, I think that you’d be a lot better having come under the United States security umbrella than you have been under the Denmark security umbrella. ...
I’ll set aside how secure the United States is when its top officials, including J.D. Vance, conduct top-secret deliberations over the unsecured Signal app. Instead, I’ll ask the first of several questions: Greenland should join the United States so it can become North Puerto Rico?
Ask Puerto Ricans whether they’re better off than Greenland, which has universal health care? Ask Puerto Ricans if they have a free college education, whether in the island’s sole university, Ilisimatusarfik, in Denmark or, thanks to the Nordic accord, universities in the other Scandinavian countries?
Denmark supports the 56,421 Greenlanders with an annual subsidy of 4.3 billion krone (the equivalent of $630 million) annually. The United States (specifically during President Trump’s first term) delayed $20 billion in hurricane relief to Puerto Rico over his petty squabble with San Juan’s mayor. Hurricane Maria killed 2,975 Puerto Ricans and left the 3.4 million residents without electricity, most of them for six months. Some people were still living in tarps three years after Hurricane Maria. That’s how much the United States invests in Puerto Rico. Is that better than how Denmark takes care of Greenlanders?
As of 2022, the median household income in Greenland was 279,000 krone (or $40,463). The median household income for Puerto Ricans, as of 2023, was $25,000. Do Puerto Ricans have a higher standard of living as a U.S. territory?
Vance said, “I think that you’d be a lot better ... coming under the United States’ security umbrella than you have been under the Denmark security umbrella.” Greenlanders, being able to do math, beg to differ. In fact, a door-to-door campaign found not a single Greenlander willing to meet with Vance or his wife Usha. And who can blame them?
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