Danish TV reporter: Americans knocked on doors in Greenland’s capital; couldn’t find hosts

A Danish television reporter said American officials knocked on doors in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, seeking local hosts for second lady Usha Vance’s planned visit, but they largely got a cold shoulder.

Jesper Steinmetz, a correspondent for Denmark’s TV 2, said that the Greenlandic capital was recently traversed by representatives of the U.S. government, who were offering a stop-by from Vance, according to a report Wednesday.

Steinmetz said the offer received no acceptance, resulting in the shifting of plans for the Greenland visit, according to the report.

When reached for comment, a senior White House official denied the reporting.

“This is categorically false. The Second Lady is proud to visit the Pituffik Space Base with her husband to learn more about arctic security and the great work of the Space Base,” the official told The Hill in an email.

Usha Vance will now be joined by her husband, and the second couple will visit a military installation, rather than previous plans to attend a dogsledding race and meet with Nuuk locals.

Officials in Greenland and Denmark have denounced the pressure campaign as the Trump administration insists it wants to take control of the Arctic territory, with President Trump calling it a strategic imperative.

“Until recently, we could safely rely on the Americans, who were our allies and friends, and with whom we liked to work closely,” Greenland Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede told the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday. 

“But that time is over, we have to admit that, because the new American leadership is completely and utterly indifferent to what we have stood together on so far, because now it is only a matter of them taking over our country over our heads,” the prime minister added.

The Hill was directed to the White House by the State Department for comment.

Updated at 5:37 p.m. EDT