President Donald Trump said he is sending “a great hospital boat” to “take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of” in Greenland, as the U.S. continues negotiations for mineral rights in the world’s largest island.
“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,” Trump wrote Saturday night on Truth Social. “It’s on the way!!!”
However, Denmark’s defense minister on Sunday rejected Trump’s offer to that country’s semiautonomous territory, the New York Times reported.
According to the Times, “Troels Lund Poulsen, the Danish defense minister, told Denmark’s public broadcaster, DR, that his government had not been made aware of the plan.”
Poulsen said there is “no need for special health care efforts” in Greenland, with the Times adding it was “not clear” why the president offered the medical assistance as “health care is free” in Greenland, including for prescription medications.
According to the Times, which is a frequent Trump critic:
Mr. Trump’s announcement appeared to be another salvo in his continuing pressure campaign on Greenland, which he has openly coveted for years. Mr. Trump last month appeared to back down from escalating threats to seize Greenland for the United States, though negotiations over his administration’s demands continued this month, and tensions with European leaders over the issue remain.
The president, however, has been in deal-making mode.
In December, the administration named Landry as special envoy to the Denmark territory, to hold formal discussions on Trump’s designs to solidify Arctic security from encroachment by Russia or China.
Amid critics stoking the fear that Trump would invade Greenland and the president threatening tariffs, a breakthrough occurred in late January when Landry spoke with NATO leadership and helped form a “framework of a future deal” to assure security for the Arctic region.
Trump said at the time that if the deal is finalized it “will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations,” adding that the agreement led him to halt the planned tariffs.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, during an interview on The Cats Roundtable radio show on Sunday, was more positive than the president’s detractors about opportunities for a Greenland deal.
Burgum said that while negotiators are still “working through the details,” he predicted a positive outcome for both the U.S. and Greenland.
“There’s so much opportunity there for everything,” Burgum said. “With President Trump understanding the strategic importance to the American public, for both safety and for the economy, good things coming ahead for the U.S. and for Greenland.”
Burgum reiterated Trump’s persistent claim that the island is key to national security for not only the U.S. mainland but Canada as well.
“If you look at geographically, where it’s positioned, it is like the end cap opposite of Alaska, and if you want to protect North America and the United States from missiles and drones coming over the top of the North Pole, Greenland is a key part of the defense of the United States of America,” Burgum said
According to the Hill:
The unfinalized agreement would allow the U.S. to access critical minerals buried beneath the ice sheet, including iron ore, diamond, copper, zinc, nickel, gold, tungsten and graphite. It would also restrict non-NATO member countries from gaining rights to mine rare earth minerals in Greenland, according to The New York Times.
The Trump administration has sought to build up a domestic rare earth minerals repository to reduce reliance on China, which controls much of the world’s supply.
As for the healthcare offer, Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, also pushed back on Trump’s Truth Social post by defending her country’s system.
Frederiksen reportedly said in a Facebook post she was “happy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health for all. Where it’s not insurances and wealth that determine whether you get proper treatment.”
There are six hospitals in Greenland serving a population of fewer than 60,000 people, the Guardian reported. However, in early February, the territory’s government signed a pact with Copenhagen to improve access for patients from Greenland to treatment in hospitals in Denmark.
President Trump as of noon Sunday had not responded to Greenland’s rejection of the hospital ship offer in what remains a developing story.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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