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  • Cory Booker’s anti-Trump Senate speech continues, pledges to go as long ‘physically able’

    Cory Booker’s anti-Trump Senate speech continues, pledges to go as long ‘physically able’

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    By Allison Detzel

    Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey is showing no signs of slowing down, as his all-night Senate floor speech in protest of President Donald Trump’s agenda has carried into Tuesday morning. As of 10 a.m. ET, the Democratic senator was still going, yielding to his fellow party members at times for the occasional short break.

    Booker took to the floor at 7 p.m. ET Monday. “I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” he told his colleagues. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our nation is in crisis.”

    “In just 71 days, [Trump] has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety; financial stability; the core foundations of our democracy,” Booker said.

    “The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent and we all must do more to stand against them,” he continued. “Generations from now will look back at this moment and have a single question — where were you?”

     
     

    In a statement, the senator said his goal was to “uplift the stories of Americans who are being harmed by the Trump Administration’s reckless actions, attempts to undermine our institutions, and disregard for the rule of law.”

    “In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety; financial stability; the core foundations of our democracy,” Booker said on the floor. “These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.”

    Watch Booker’s Senate floor speech live below:

    Booker, at times with his voice cracking, shared stories from his constituents about how Trump’s drastic cuts are already taking a toll on their everyday lives. The senator read aloud a letter from a voter diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease — which Booker’s late father also suffered from — who worried about the impact the loss of Social Security benefits could have on their family.

     

    “I tell you, I’m gonna fight to protect your Social Security. I’m gonna fight to protect the agency,” Booker pledged. “I’m gonna stand as long as I can and read stories like this because you are seen. You are heard. Your voices are more important than any of the 100 of us.”

    The New Jersey Democrat also honored late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, whom Booker referred to as “one of my greatest heroes of life.”

    “I’ve been thinking about him a lot during these last 71 days. ‘Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, help redeem the soul of America,’” Booker continued. “And had to ask myself, if he’s my hero, how am I living up to his words?”

    Booker said he launched the protest “with the intention of getting in some good trouble.”

    Over the course of Booker’s marathon speech, the senator took only brief breaks from speaking, yielding the floor to questions from his Democratic colleagues. As of 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Booker’s speech was 15 hours and counting.

     

    As NPR noted, “The longest filibuster on record was a 1957 speech by then-Democratic Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina — in opposition to the Civil Rights Act — that lasted for 24 hours and 18 minutes.” Technically, Booker’s speech is not a filibuster since the Senate isn’t holding a debate over a specific bill or nominee. However, depending on how long Booker continues, it could still disrupt official Senate business.

    Shortly after 7 a.m. ET, the senator made it clear he had no intentions of yielding the floor: “I’m rip-roaring and ready, I’m wide awake. I’m going to stand here for as many hours as I can.”

    This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

    Allison Detzel

    Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MSNBC Digital.

     
     
     

  • Annexing Greenland and imposing more tariffs: Trump’s week in review

    By Ryan Teague Beckwith

    President Donald Trump kept pushing two of his less popular ideas in his 10th week in office: annexing Greenland and imposing more tariffs.

    Both ideas have received little traction among Americans in recent polls, with one showing only 19% approve of Trump’s idea of somehow taking over Greenland.

    Here’s a mostly complete look at what else Trump or his administration has done over the last seven days:

    • Announced he would impose a 25% tariff on all imported vehicles and foreign-made auto parts.

    • Sent Vice President JD Vance to Greenland, where he argued that Denmark has not “done a good job.”

    • Withdrew the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik as ambassador to the United Nations to avoid potentially losing a Republican in the House.

    • Canceled more than 300 visas, primarily student visas, including for students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests.

    • Cut dozens of HIV-related research grants with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

    • Pardoned the former CEO of Nikola Corp., on federal crimes related to defrauding investors, after he made significant political donations to Trump and his allies.

    • Announced a sweeping round of new tariffs on imports to take effect April 2, which he dubbed “Liberation Day.”

    • Sent Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to a Salvadoran prison, where she wore a $50,000 watch while filming a video.

    • Said he will nominate a Fox News contributor as head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

    • Suspended security clearances for employees of a law firm that previously employed Robert Mueller.

    • Announced that Trump’s eldest sons’ cryptocurrency venture will launch a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar.

    • Argued that people who vandalized his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland were “terrorists” who should be “treated harshly.”

    • Signed an executive order seeking to eliminate “improper, divisive, or anti-American” ideology from the Smithsonian Institution.

    • Reportedly hired a researcher who has claimed unproven links between vaccines and autism at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    • Said that he is “not joking” when he talks about an unconstitutional third term.

    Subscribe to Trump’s First 100 Days newsletter for weekly updates on and expert insight into the key issues and figures defining his second term.

    Ryan Teague Beckwith

    Ryan Teague Beckwith is a newsletter editor for MSNBC. He has previously worked for such outlets as Time magazine and Bloomberg News. He teaches journalism at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies and is the creator of Your First Byline.

  • Some Jews worry that Trump’s antisemitism crackdown is putting them in danger

    By Ja’han Jones

    President Donald Trump’s administration recently stripped Columbia University of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding in a blatant act of authoritarianism that Trump and his allies dubiously say is necessary to stem antisemitism. The university sheepishly acquiesced to virtually all of the administration’s demands in an effort to restart talks to unfreeze that money.

    I recently wrote about the absurdity of the MAGA movement’s lobbing claims of antisemitism precisely as some of the most prominent conservative influencers are praising Nazi apologists and even defending Adolf Hitler himself.

    The Trump administration has given a range of rationales — from diversity-related policies to the recognition of trans people in collegiate athletics — as it targets American universities, which JD Vance once branded “the enemy.” Beyond that, the White House has used allegations of antisemitism to pursue deportation of foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.

    Amid all of this, I’ve been interested in hearing Jewish voices speaking about the administration’s apparent use of Jewish people and their pain to carry out its illiberal goals — and the concerns they have about the White House’s actions helping fuel antisemitism.

    Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor who recently decided to leave Yale to go teach in Canada, recently explained on PBS’ “Amanpour & Company” why he thinks the Trump administration’s efforts are actually boosting antisemitic tropes:

    This is reinforcing antisemitic tropes all across the political spectrum. … What are the most toxic antisemitic tropes? Well, “Jews control the institutions.” This is absolutely reinforcing this. Any young American is going to think: Remember what happened when they took down the world’s greatest university system on behalf of Jewish safety? And this will go down in history books — the history of this era will say that Jewish people were the sledgehammer for fascism. So if we don’t speak out, if we American Jews do not speak out against this, this will be a grim chapter in our history as Americans. It’s the first time in my life as an American that I have been fearful of our status as equal Americans — not because of the protests on campus, which, as I said, had a lot of Jewish students in them. But because we are suddenly at the center of U.S. politics. It’s never good to be in the crosshairs for us. And we are being used to destroy democracy.

    Dylan Williams, the vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, a progressive think tank, agreed.

    “This is exactly right and I have no doubt that it is how the overwhelming majority of Jewish Americans feel — we are being exploited in an attack on democracy, rights and the rule of law,” Williams wrote on X.

    This concern isn’t confined to Jewish leftists. In fact, conservative writer Nick Cohen essentially warned about what we’re seeing now back in December. In an article for The Jewish Chronicle headlined “American Jews, beware of being used by Trump,” he wrote:

    There’s an old saying that antisemitism is never really about Jews. Everyone from European fascists to today’s Khomeinists, for example, uses anti-Jewish conspiracy theories to justify the denial of human rights to their own citizens. The same applies to the philosemitism of the Trump movement. It wants to use American Jews — most of whom still vote Democrat, I should add — as an excuse to undermine their political opponents in liberal universities and abolish the US Education department.

    Furthermore, Kenneth Stern, the director of Bard College’s Center for the Study of Hate and a lead drafter of the working definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, recently told NPR that the Trump administration’s campus crackdown risks scapegoating Jewish students, as well.

    “It puts pro-Israel Jewish students in a situation where they may be seen as trying to suppress speech rather than answer it,” Stern said.

    As NPR noted, the administration has adopted Stern’s definition of antisemitism in its executive orders — but he says the definition is being distorted and weaponized.

    These concerns, about purported allyship’s being used in ways that ultimately may undermine Jews, mirror what some Asian Americans expressed as conservatives were using their communities to argue against — and do away with — race-conscious admissions on college campuses.

    Needless to say, members of more than one marginalized group have shown wariness about the MAGA movement’s claiming to act on their behalf. And they have ample reason to feel that way.


    Ja’han Jones

    Ja’han Jones is an MSNBC opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. He is a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include “Black Hair Defined” and the “Black Obituary Project.”

  • Gov. Jeff Landry, 50 Cent and Trump Jr. lose in Louisiana constitutional amendment vote

    Gov. Jeff Landry, 50 Cent and Trump Jr. lose in Louisiana constitutional amendment vote

    By Ja’han Jones

    Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, Donald Trump Jr., rapper 50 Cent and other MAGA-aligned figures suffered a big loss Saturday when voters in the Bayou State rejected various amendments to the state constitution.

    Landry spent a large amount of political capital advocating for the four proposed amendments. Amendment 1 would have allowed the state to create regional and statewide specialty courts and would’ve granted the state Supreme Court the power to punish out-of-state lawyers accused of unethical behavior in Louisiana.

    Amendment 2 would have lowered the state’s maximum income tax rate, among other things. Perhaps most importantly, it would have “moved hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue from state savings accounts into Louisiana’s general fund, where Landry and state legislators could have spent it more easily,” the Louisiana Illuminator reported.

    50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, had received some backlash for dropping a video endorsing the amendment.

    50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, had received some backlash for dropping a video endorsing the amendment. The rapper-turned-businessman recently has been executing a plan to build a massive production studio in Shreveport. The president’s oldest son also endorsed the amendment before it failed.

    Amendment 3 would have made it easier to prosecute someone younger than 17 as an adult, while Amendment 4 would have altered the timeline for judicial elections in the state.

    All four amendments lost while earning less than 40% of voter support. And rather than take his loss gracefully, Louisiana’s governor chose to cast conspiratorial blame at liberal donor George Soros.

    “Soros and far left liberals poured millions into Louisiana with propaganda and outright lies about Amendment 2,” he said in a statement, adding: “We realize how hard positive change can be to implement in a State that is conditioned for failure.”

    That’s obvious sour grapes from Landry, who seems more than a little upset that this MAGA-fueled power grab failed at the polls.

    Ja’han Jones

    Ja’han Jones is an MSNBC opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. He is a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include “Black Hair Defined” and the “Black Obituary Project.”

  • The real controversy at the center of Trump’s Houthi Signal chat scandal

    The real controversy at the center of Trump’s Houthi Signal chat scandal

    By Ayman Mohyeldin and Basel Hamdan

    This is an adapted excerpt from the March 30 episode of “Ayman.”

    Washington has been in a frenzy over the Trump administration’s Signal scandal, in which some of the president’s top officials were caught discussing a bombing campaign in Yemen in an unsecured group chat that somehow included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.

    Despite all these questions, somehow the most important part of this story isn’t getting any attention in elite Washington circles.

    People were outraged. Many wondered how this could have happened. Some pressed for national security adviser Mike Waltz, who added Goldberg to the chat, to resign. Questions have also swirled about another chat participant, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California asked if Hegseth could have possibly been drinking before he sent the military plans. There’s also a question about why no one has been fired yet. (President Donald Trump said Saturday that no one will be.)Despite all these questions, somehow the most important part of this story isn’t getting any attention in elite Washington circles. And it’s this: Why is America bombing Yemen in the first place? How many people are being killed in these bombings? Who are they? If Congress hasn’t voted on it, are the bombings unconstitutional? Are they a violation of the United Nations Charter?

    To be clear, American attacks on Yemen didn’t just start with Trump. For years, Houthi rebels in Yemen have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, a major trade route. The attacks started shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and the Houthis say they won’t stop until Israel’s onslaught on Gaza has ended.

    In response to these attacks, Joe Biden ordered airstrikes on the Houthis. Shortly after, Biden admitted those strikes weren’t successful. However, he also pledged to continue them. And now it’s Trump’s turn to pick up where Biden left off. The president is doing so without any debate or congressional approval. In March, he declared the group a foreign terrorist organization.

    Some may remember that as a candidate, Trump pledged to end America’s era of endless wars. It was a smart campaign strategy. The American people are sick and tired of these wars. But as soon as Trump retook the White House, he did just the opposite. He’s ramped up bombings on Yemen. He has also effectively given a green light to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu to end the ceasefire in Gaza. On Iran, Trump told my colleague Kristen Welker: “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.” On Greenland, Trump told Welker, “I never take military force off the table.”

    So far, this president isn’t a peacemaker, and he’s not ending America’s forever wars — he’s threatening to start new ones.

    But that doesn’t seem to be of concern to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They’re concerned about keeping American secrets safe, and the bombing campaign itself is just background noise. 

    So far, this president isn’t a peacemaker and he’s not ending America’s forever wars — he’s threatening to start new ones.

    It’s not just the politicians who are missing the real story here. In an interview with NPR, Goldberg was asked about how, in the aftermath of his story, there has been little focus on the over 50 people, including women and children, who were killed in these strikes and whether he believed people were “burying the lead.”“I don’t know if we’re burying the lead, because, obviously, huge breaches in national security and safety of information — that’s a very, very important story, obviously,” Goldberg responded.

    This is the perfect example of a Washington controversy: Democrats and Republicans are screaming at each other while the most powerful voices on both sides support the same underlying policy — a seemingly illegal war on a sovereign Middle Eastern country without congressional approval.

    Ayman Mohyeldin

    Ayman Mohyeldin is an MSNBC anchor who has long reported on the Middle East and the Arab world. He is the host of “Ayman,” which airs at 7 p.m. ET Saturdays and Sundays.

    Basel Hamdan

    Basel Hamdan is a segment producer for “Ayman.”

    Allison Detzel contributed.

  • The Yankees aren’t cheating with their new bats — but it still feels wrong

    The talk of Major League Baseball’s opening weekend was the New York Yankees’ bats, and “bats” here isn’t a figurative way to talk about the insane 36 runs off 34 hits, including 15 homers, the team notched in their first three games. Instead, the conversation is focused on the literal shape of the bats some on the Yankees used to produce those eye-popping numbers.

    The conversation is focused on the shape of the bats some on the Yankees used to produce those eye-popping numbers.

    The Yanks seem to have created an edge by — gasp — innovating. Several of their stars (notably excluding Aaron Judge, who leads the team in hits, home runs, on-base percentage, RBIs and batting average) are swinging a so-called torpedo bat, which uses a manufacturing tweak to shift some of a traditional bat’s mass a few inches in toward the batter. Instead of the bats we’re used to seeing that are skinny on one end and heavy on the other, these bats look flatter because more of their mass is concentrated in the zone most likely to make contact with a pitch, theoretically giving hitters more power without changing anything else.

    Early results say the Yankees’ scheme is working: They’re undefeated through three games, having outscored the Milwaukee Brewers 36-14 in their opening series.

    And now, the question being asked in the sports-talkosphere is “Are the Yankees cheating?” Is changing the shape of a baseball bat the same as corking one, which once earned Sammy Sosa a suspension? Does it line up with players’ using performance enhancing drugs, signal stealing or pitchers’ tampering with a ball?

    Test Again

  • Wisconsin AG files lawsuit against Musk over state Supreme Court voter payout scheme

    By Clarissa-Jan Lim

    Wisconsin’s attorney general has sued Elon Musk to prevent him from giving $1 million checks to voters who signed his petition opposing “activist judges” in the state Supreme Court election.

    Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, filed the lawsuit against Musk on Friday over his voter payout scheme. “Based on our understanding of applicable Wisconsin law, we intend to take legal action today to seek a court order to stop this from happening,” Kaul said in a statement.

    Musk had promised to hand out $1 million apiece to two voters at an event on Sunday. The Tesla CEO initially linked his giveaway to people who had already voted in the election “in appreciation for you taking the time to vote,” a move that potentially flouts a federal law that bars payments to people in exchange for their votes or for registering to vote. Legal scholar Rick Hasen has also said that the scheme may be illegal under Wisconsin law.

    Musk later deleted the post and issued a “clarification” that removed any connection between the payouts and voting, saying the money will be awarded to “spokesmen” for his petition to oppose “activist judges” and that entrance to the event is limited to those who have signed that petition. The pivot echoes the disclosure in a Pennsylvania court in November that Musk’s daily million-dollar campaign season payouts were to “spokespeople,” rather than randomly chosen individuals who had signed a petition.

    NBC News reported:

    After the news broke Kaul would seek to block Musk’s giveaway, Musk reposted a message on his social media platform X in which another user called the lawsuit ‘lawfare,’ a refrain Trump and his allies have used to decry legal decisions that have gone against the president and the various investigations he’s faced in the last few years.

    The race between liberal candidate Susan Crawford and conservative Brad Schimel for an empty seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has attracted national attention — and donations. It is already the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history, with more than $81 million poured into a race that will determine the partisan lean of the swing state’s highest court, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

    Groups linked to Musk have spent millions to help boost Schimel’s campaign and have offered financial incentives to voters to engage them in the race. It is yet another test of the billionaire’s effort to turn his financial might into political power.

    Musk became involved in the election shortly after Tesla sued Wisconsin over a state law that prohibits auto manufacturers from selling directly to consumers. That lawsuit may very well end up before the court — whose political makeup he is currently trying to sway.

    Clarissa-Jan Lim

    Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for MSNBC Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.

  • Dr. Peter Marks resigns as FDA vaccine chief, citing Kennedy’s ‘lies’

    By Clarissa-Jan Lim

    The Food and Drug Administration’s chief vaccine regulator has been pushed out of the agency, in what could be a troubling sign of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to advance his anti-vaccine agenda throughout the Department of Health and Human Services.

    Dr. Peter Marks, who oversaw the FDA’s vaccine division as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, submitted his resignation to acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner on Friday. In his letter to Brenner, which The New York Times published in full, Marks strongly criticized Kennedy for promoting “misinformation and lies” in his claims regarding vaccine safety:

    ‘As you are aware, I was willing to work to address the Secretary’s concerns regarding vaccine safety and transparency by hearing from the public and implementing a variety of different public meetings and engagements with the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine,’ Marks wrote. ‘However, it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.’

    Marks was forced out of his position, a person familiar with the matter told NBC News. According to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news of his resignation, a HHS official gave Marks the choice to resign or be fired, per people familiar with the matter.

    Marks’ resignation will take effect on April 5.

    In his letter, Marks expressed concern about the current measles outbreak in the U.S., saying it “reminds us of what happens when confidence in well-established science underlying public health and well-being is undermined.”

    Officials have recorded more than 520 cases of measles across 20 states since the start of the year, most of which are in Texas. Two people have died so far, including a 6-year-old girl who was unvaccinated.

    Kennedy has tepidly encouraged people to get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, while asserting without evidence that the vaccine causes deaths every year. He has promoted unproven remedies like cod liver oil and steroids to treat measles and baselessly claimed that a measles infection could protect against cancer and heart disease.

    Marks’ departure from the FDA and his explicit criticism of Kennedy suggest the extent to which the secretary is pushing his anti-vaccine agenda from his perch as health secretary.

    In a portion of his letter that does not name Kennedy, Marks addressed the efforts to diminish public confidence in vaccines, calling such messages “irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety and security.”

    Clarissa-Jan Lim

    Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for MSNBC Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.

  • Ahead of Tesla protests, Musk threatens his company’s critics

    By Ja’han Jones

    It was like something you’d expect from a villain in a comic book: The world’s richest man leering through the television screen, wagging his finger while threatening to weaponize the government — up to and including the presidency — to quash criticism of him and his company.

    And yet there was Elon Musk, during his recent sit-down interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, vowing to sic the president and others in the federal government on critics. Ahead of a weekend when protests against him and his tech company, Tesla, are scheduled in more than 200 locations, Musk accused his critics of posing a greater threat than violent vandals. 

    Musk told Baier:

    They’re being fed propaganda by the far-left, and they believe it. It’s really unfortunate. The real problem is not, like, you know, the crazy guy that firebombs a Tesla dealership. It’s the people pushing the propaganda that caused that guy to do it. Those are the real villains here, and we’re going to go after them. And the president has made it clear we’re going to go after them. The ones providing the money, the ones pushing the lies and propaganda, we’re going after them.

    While there have been reported incidents of vandalism targeting Teslas and Tesla dealerships in recent weeks, there’s no evidence those are part of some coordinated effort by liberals (or anyone else), contrary to claims from Musk and Donald Trump. In Musk’s estimation, the vandalism seems almost beside the point; he is suggesting rather that it’s people who say negative things about Tesla who are the true ne’er-do-wells.

    The important context here is that Tesla stock has taken a tumble to start the year amid massive product recalls and growing anger at Trump for giving Musk the ability to withhold money from federal programs that Americans rely on. A recent NBC News poll found that 51 percent of registered voters hold a negative view of Musk, compared to 39 percent who view him positively. (Musk himself saw this coming last year when he predicted that his and Trump’s decisions would create “hardship” that could lead to anger toward him.)

    When Baier noted that some have accused Musk of being “a Nazi, a white supremacist [and] a fascist,” Musk again said that opinions of that sort warrant punishment. “We need to hold people responsible for pushing these lies, because those lies almost got the president killed.”

    Of course, there’s no evidence that any such accusations against Musk — even if one were citing his support for Germany’s far-right AfD party or his repeated promotion of racist pseudoscience — have anything to do with any previous attempts on Trump’s life. 

    But this is oligarchy in action: a rich man lording over the government that has already paid him handsomely, using the apparatus of the state as a weapon in an attempt to silence critics.

    Ja’han Jones

    Ja’han Jones is an MSNBC opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. He is a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include “Black Hair Defined” and the “Black Obituary Project.”

  • In Greenland, JD Vance tries to make the case for U.S. takeover

    By Clarissa-Jan Lim

    As President Donald Trump once again reiterated his call for the U.S. to take over Greenland, the vice president and second lady touched down Friday in the semi-autonomous Danish territory for a daylong visit to a U.S. Space Force base.

    “How we doing? It’s cold as s— here — nobody told me!” Vice President JD Vance said as he arrived at the base in Pituffik with second lady Usha Vance.

    At a press conference later, the VP attempted to pitch the U.S. as a better alternative for Greenland’s security than Denmark.

    “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 — coming under the United States’ security umbrella than you have been under Denmark’s security umbrella,” he said.

    Vance also admonished Denmark for what he suggested was a failure to do right by Greenlanders — a scolding tone he similarly took with European leaders during his visit there last month.

    “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance said. “You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful land mass filled with incredible people.”

    Most Greenlanders would beg to differ. Trump’s calls to take over the Arctic island have led to some of the largest protests the territory has ever seen, Reuters reported, with demonstrators wearing “Make America Go Away” hats and carrying “Yankees Go Home” signs. Usha Vance’s initial itinerary was also met with a frosty reception from local officials. A January poll found that a vast majority of Greenlanders do not want to join the United States.

    Against the backdrop of Trump’s insistence that the U.S. will control Greenland “one way or the other,” the second couple’s visit to the Arctic island was largely uneventful.

    Usha Vance had initially planned to visit a number of cultural events in Greenland over three days and without her husband in tow. U.S. national security adviser Michael Waltz — who is in hot water back home over a stunning security lapse involving the messaging app Signal — had been set to tour the Pituffik military base with her. But their plans caused an uproar among local officials, and Greenland Prime Minister Múte B. Egede called the U.S. delegation’s visit a “provocation.”

    The vice president later announced that he would join his wife on the visit and that they would merely tour the U.S. base on a day trip.

    Clarissa-Jan Lim

    Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for MSNBC Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.