Republican Governor Disinvited From Greenland Dog Sled Race After Trump’s Tariff Threats

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, was disinvited from attending a dog sled race on the island following a weekend of saber rattling from the president as he aggressively pushes for U.S. acquisition of the semi-autonomous Danish territory.

The Greenland Dog Sledding Association (KNQK) said in a release on Sunday that it “has been informed that the tourist company that invited Governor Jeff Landry from the United States has withdrawn its invitation.”

“This is reassuring for KNQK, and we take note of it,” the release added. It did not name the company in question that had taken the action.

Trump renewed his first-term push to acquire Greenland shortly after being sworn back into office, and vowed in his address to Congress last year: “One way or another, we’re going to get it.”

Trump escalated his threats Sunday morning in a text message to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, saying that he was pushing to acquire Greenland, at least in part, because he did not win a Nobel Peace Prize. He said the snub had freed him to no longer “think purely of Peace.”

“Why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway?” Trump wrote in the message to Støre. “There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.”

On Saturday, Trump announced tariffs against eight European countries that sent troops to Greenland in recent months, including Britain, France and Germany.

“No intimidation nor threat will influence us, neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world when we are confronted with such situations,” French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X. “Tariff threats are unacceptable and have no place in this context.”

Some congressional Republicans have also expressed anxiety around Trump’s threats, including several who were caught flat-footed over the weekend as they joined a bipartisan delegation in Denmark seeking to turn down the temperature between the two historical allies.

“This response to our own allies for sending a small number of troops to Greenland for training is bad for America, bad for American businesses, and bad for America’s allies,” Sen. Thom Tillis posted to X in response to the tariff announcement. “It hurts the legacy of President Trump and undercuts all the work he has done to strengthen the NATO alliance over the years.”

In a post to social media last week, KNQK said it learned of Landry’s invitation to their annual race, Avannaata Qimussersua, from a U.S.-based journalist and immediately launched an investigation into who sent it.

“The KNQK Board finds it unacceptable that political pressure is being exerted from outside and therefore considers the participation of foreign political actors in Avannaata Qimussersua to be wholly inappropriate,” the release read. “The board is currently working closely with patrons to determine who sent invitations to foreign actors.”

Vice President JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, was also slated to attend the annual dog sled race in 2025 during the pair’s official visit to Greenland but canceled her participation after protests erupted against the couple’s presence.