After months of dispute over Greenland and occasional threats of violence, Trump announced on Saturday that he would send a hospital ship to the island, which belongs to Denmark. The “great” ship should take care of the “many people who are sick and cannot receive care there,” he wrote in his online service Truth Social.
The US President did not provide any information about which supposedly sick people he was referring to. “It’s on the way!!!,” Trump wrote, flanked by a picture of the hospital ship “USNS Mercy.”
“We are aware of President Trump’s idea of sending a US hospital ship to Greenland,” wrote Prime Minister Nielsen on Facebook. There is already free healthcare for everyone in Greenland.
“The population of Greenland receives the health care they need,” emphasized Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen on broadcaster DR. Medical care takes place either in Greenland itself or by specialists in Denmark; there is no need for medical help from other countries.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wrote on Facebook that she was “happy to live in a country where access to health care is free and equal for everyone and where insurance or wealth do not determine whether you receive appropriate treatment.” Frederiksen did not mention the USA.
However, MP Aaja Chemnitz, who represents Greenland in the Danish parliament, wrote on Facebook: “Our health system is severely affected.” But this can be “best solved in cooperation with Denmark, one of the richest and best-educated countries, for example in the health sector.” She added: “Not with the US, which has its own health system problems.”
Greenland has five hospitals in which many specialists from Denmark work. Health care in the autonomous region, like the rest of Denmark, is free – unlike in the USA. At the beginning of February, Nuuk and Copenhagen also signed an agreement to improve care for Greenlandic patients in Danish clinics.
In many remote villages, however, it is difficult to quickly receive care in the event of illness: in Kapisillit, which is 75 kilometers from Nuuk, the village leader Heidi Nolsö has been trying to get a defibrillator for a long time. The rescue service could only reach her village in two hours by ship or helicopter, Nolsö told the AFP news agency. “If you have a heart attack, it’s already too late.”
Trump’s announcement therefore hits a sore spot for many people in Greenland, Health Minister Anna Wangenheim admitted on Facebook. However, structural problems cannot be solved through “isolated and symbolic initiatives from outside”.
Shortly before Trump’s announcement, the Danish army evacuated a crew member of a US submarine off the coast of Greenland due to a medical emergency. The crew member was taken to the hospital in the Greenland capital Nuuk, the army’s Arctic Command said in online services on Saturday. It was brought ashore by helicopter.
Since his return to the White House more than a year ago, Trump has repeatedly claimed ownership of Greenland, which belongs to NATO and EU member state Denmark, thereby plunging NATO into a deep crisis. He withdrew threats of a violent takeover last month after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Instead, a working group was set up.
