President Donald Trump announced he’s planning to send a U.S. hospital ship to Greenland, claiming he’s dispatching the vessel because Greenlanders are not receiving proper health care.
“Working with the fantastic Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there.
It’s on the way!!!” he wrote in a Saturday Truth Social post alongside what appeared to be an illustration of USNS Mercy, the lead ship of hospital ships in non-commissioned service with the U.S. Navy.
In December, Trump named Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.
Trump’s post came hours after Denmark’s military said its arctic command forces evacuated a crew member of a U.S. submarine in Greenlandic waters for urgent medical treatment.
It is unclear if Trump’s post had any connection to the evacuation. He did not clarify whether Greenland asked for the extra medical assistance nor why they would need it.
On Sunday, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said “no thanks” to Trump’s plan to send the ship to Greenland in a Facebook post.
Greenland and Denmark have free, tax-funded health care for their residents.
“President Trump’s idea of sending an American hospital ship here to Greenland has been noted. But we have a public healthcare system where treatment is free for citizens. It is a deliberate choice,” Nielsen wrote.
He added: “But talk to us instead of just making more or less random outbursts on social media.”
Denmark’s Deputy Prime Minister Troels Lund Poulsen also shut down Trump’s allegation that Greenlanders are not getting the health care they need.
“The Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs,” he told the Danish broadcaster DR, according to The Guardian.
“They receive it either in Greenland, or, if they require specialized treatment, they receive it in Denmark. So it’s not as if there’s a need for a special healthcare initiative in Greenland.”
President Donald Trump first floated the idea of acquiring Greenland in 2019, but renewed his push during his second presidential term.
“Trump is constantly tweeting about Greenland. So this is undoubtedly an expression of the new normal that has taken hold in international politics,” Poulsen added.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stepped in as well and defended the country’s health care system in a Facebook post Sunday, writing that she was “happy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health for all. Where it’s not insurance and wealth that determine whether you get proper treatment,” according to The Associated Press.
Trump has repeatedly re-upped his desire to acquire Greenland in recent months, citing that we need the autonomous Danish territory for “national security.”
The discussion has sparked widespread pushback from European leaders and allies, and subsequently thrown the White House’s relationship with its European NATO allies into peril, particularly after Trump threatened last month to punish countries that don’t back his move to take control of Greenland with tariffs.
Trump announced what he called the framework of a deal with NATO regarding Greenland late last month, despite Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of NATO publicly insisting that Greenland was never mentioned in his discussion with Trump.
Frederiksen also threw cold water on a claim leaked by the White House that the agreement would give the U.S. ownership of “small pockets of land” on Greenland for military purposes.
(Huff Post)
