Denmark goes nuclear on JD Vance ahead of Greenland visit and vows to stop US takeover: Live updates

Vice President JD Vance is set to visit the U.S. military base at Pituffik in northern Greenland on Friday.

It comes after Donald Trump on Wednesday said the U.S. needs the strategically located island for national and international security.

Greenland is a semi-autonomous Danish territory.

Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said:

These very powerful statements about a close ally do not suit the U.S. president," he told reporters in Copenhagen on Thursday.

I need to clearly speak out against what I see as an escalation from the American side. The tightened rhetoric is in every way far-fetched.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen praised residents of the island, which has a population of 57,000.

The attention is overwhelming and the pressure is great, but it is in times like these that you show what you are made of.

You (the people of Greenland) have not been cowed. You have stood up for who you are and you have shown what you stand for. That has my deepest respect.

Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned Donald Trump is 'serious' about his plans to annex Greenland and that Russia is 'watching very closely' for America's next move.

'We are talking about serious plans on the American side with regard to Greenland. These plans have long-standing historical roots,' Putin told the International Arctic Forum in the Russian city of Murmansk.

His use of the word 'serious' underscored how Russia views the situation.

In his remarks, Putin also gave a hint of warning, saying Russia has never threatened anyone in the Arctic, but is prepared to defend its interest. Russia will station more military personnel in the Arctic.

'We are watching very closely,' the Russian president said.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took a cue from President Trump and attacked a 'radical' judge who ruled against the administration on its move to use a 200-year-old law to deport alleged gang members.

Leavitt spoke after a federal appeals court panel in D.C. ruled against the administration in a 2-1 decision, setting up a battle that could go to the Supreme Court.

'I understand that a radical judge at the appeals court has denied the president and our legal team in the case agains the Alien Enemies Act. But we are going to continue to forge ahead in the court,' she told Fox & Friends Thursday morning.

Democrats close to Kamala Harris established a secret 'death pool' in case President Joe Biden died in office and the vice president needed to be sworn in.

As early as 2023 Democrats 'strategized around the possibility that Biden might die in office'.

Jamal Simmons, who was then Harris's White House communications director, led the effort to draw up a 'death-pool roster' of federal judges who might swear Harris in.

Authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes reveal the secret planning in their forthcoming book 'Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,' which is out next week.

President Donald Trump will sign another round of executive orders today.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to preview what he was signing: 'Well, I won't get ahead of the president on any additional tariffs. As you know, on April 2, there will be the reciprocal tariff announcement, which is going to focus on countries particularly that have been ripping off the United States.'

Trump has already signed the 100th executive order of his second term and he's surpassed Franklin D. Roosevelt's record of 99 executive orders within his first 100 days.