Featured Image Credit: Jim Watson - Pool/Getty Images
Topics: US News, JD Vance, World News
Joe Harker
Topics: US News, JD Vance, World News
A US Space Force commander stationed in Greenland has been fired after criticising the Trump administration's stance on the territory in an email she sent following JD Vance's visit.
In case you'd been wanting to avoid updates about this constantly wearying world, which is quite understandable, Donald Trump wants to take over Greenland.
He's made it abundantly clear on multiple occasions that he aims to bring Greenland, currently a self-governing territory in Denmark, under US control, saying they 'have to have' it and will get it 'one way or the other'.
Greenlanders have made it rather clear that they don't want to be ruled by the Americans, not that the current US government seems to have much care about what they want.
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Trump's VP JD Vance recently visited Greenland and was thought of as an embarrassment when he showed up and opined that it was 'cold as s**t here'.
Greenlanders were not thrilled to have Vance visiting, with US officials going door-to-door in an attempt to find anyone willing to meet with him and coming up short.
Locals said they did not like Vance visiting with some saying they'd turn their backs on the US vice president if he showed his face.
Instead, Vance's trip was restricted to visiting the Pituffik Space Base which is under the command of the US Space Force, and he only spent a few hours there.
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Following on from his visit the commanding officer in charge of Pituffik, one Colonel Susan Meyers, has been fired after she sent an email to personnel on the base after Vance had left.
In her email sent on 31 March, she wrote: "I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base."
Colonel Myers said she had 'spent the weekend thinking about Friday's visit - the actions taken, the words spoken, and how it must have affected each of you'.
Now, she has been fired.
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A spokesperson for the US Space Force said that Colonel Myers had been removed by Colonel Kenneth Klock after a 'loss of confidence in her ability to lead'.
"Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining nonpartisan in the performance of their duties," the spokesperson said.
During Vance's visit to Greenland, he also made derogatory remarks about Denmark, saying the country had to 'keep the people of Greenland safe from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China, and other nations'.
Vance went on to say that he encouraged Greenlanders to seek 'self-determination' away from Denmark (something they're already doing as there is a strong independence movement there), and saying that the US expected to take over: "We think we're going to be able to cut a deal, Donald Trump-style, to ensure the security of this territory."