US Vice President JD Vance on Friday shrugged off demands for firings after top national security officials added a journalist to a chat group discussing planned strikes on Yemen.
This week, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine said he had been inadvertently added to a group chat on the unsecured commercial app Signal, along with Mr Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and other members of President Donald Trump's Cabinet ahead of strikes against the Houthi rebel group this month.
“If you think you're going to force the President of the United States to fire anybody, you've got another thing coming,” Mr Vance told reporters on a visit to Greenland. “We are standing behind our entire national security team.”
There were a number of sensitive details related to timing and weapons used in the strikes revealed in the chat, and there have been calls from Democratic politicians that members of the Cabinet involved should resign.
Mr Waltz, who assumed “full responsibility” for the incident, said that he was enlisting Trump adviser Elon Musk to discover how the journalist was added to the Signal group chat. “We made a mistake. We’re moving forward,” he said.
During his visit to Greenland, Mr Vance also accused Denmark of not doing a good job keeping the semi-autonomous territory safe.
Mr Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire for the US to annex Greenland, which is rich in minerals and lies in a prime naval location in the Arctic.
During a visit to the US military base at Pituffik in the north of the Arctic island, Mr Vance said Washington has no immediate plans to expand its military presence on the ground but will invest in resources including additional naval ships.
He pledged respect for Greenland's sovereignty but also suggested the territory would come to see the benefit of partnering with the US.
“Denmark has not kept pace and devoted the resources necessary to keep this base, to keep our troops, and in my view, to keep the people of Greenland safe from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China and other nations,” Mr Vance said. He gave no details of the alleged incursions.
As Greenlanders expressed deep unease about the visit, Mr Vance vowed the people of Greenland would have “self-determination” and the US would respect its sovereignty.
His remarks came hours after a new broad government coalition that aims to keep ties with Denmark for now was presented in the capital, Nuuk.
Greenland's new Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said the US visit signalled a “lack of respect”, while Danish leaders expressed their commitment to Greenland.
Polls have shown that nearly all Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the US. Anti-American protesters, some wearing “Make America Go Away” caps and holding “Yankees Go Home” banners, have staged some of the largest demonstrations seen in Greenland.
