We haven't seen many new developments on the Greenland front since a deal was reached for increased basing and the United States' first call on mineral rights on that frozen island. On Saturday, however, President Trump announced he was ordering a U.S. hospital ship to Greenland to provide humanitarian assistance.
As of this writing, it's not clear what kind of healthcare crisis Greenland is suffering that prompted this action.
President Donald Trump's designs to take over Greenland have been quiet for a few weeks, but a Joint Arctic Command medical evacuation by Denmark on Saturday now has the U.S. sending a "great hospital boat" to take care of the "sick."
"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!!!"
Gov. Landry was designated the special envoy to Greenland in December and held formal discussions of the road map of Trump's designs to solidify Arctic security from threats from Russia or China.
Denmark's reply was, in essence, "Oh, please."
Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen did not directly reject Trump's overture, but he did tell Danish broadcaster DR on Sunday that Greenland is all set.
"The Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs," Poulsen said. "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."
The Danish Prime Minister also commented, and here's where they run off the rails just a bit:
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen did not directly address the Trump post on his own Facebook account hours later, but she did extoll socialist ideology on healthcare "for all."
"Am happy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health for all," Frederiksen wrote in a translated post, sharing a Democrat attack point on Trump's Republican Party's struggles to reform what Trump has rebuked as a "failure" of Obamacare. "Where it’s not insurances and wealth that determine whether you get proper treatment. You have the same approach in Greenland."
Yeah, PM Frederiksen, socialist talking points aside, there's no such thing as "free" healthcare. Everything has to be paid for, one way or another. That's a canard. Also, while you look down your Danish nose at the American system, Greenland's life expectancy is nearly a decade lower than in the United States, so it's not all sunshine and roses.
Read More: Trump Locks in 'Total Access' to Greenland Forever in New Deal
Greenland's Prime Minister Sounds the Alarm for... an 'Invasion?'
Still, there isn't any indication of medical emergencies overwhelming Greenland's domestic health care system, so this is a curious move. Note that Denmark isn't refusing the ship, presumably one of two hospital ships in the U.S. Navy inventory. This is, again, curious. We do know that Denmark has helped evacuate a sailor from a United States Navy submarine, which was about seven nautical miles from the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk; that sailor was at least report transferred by a Danish Seahawk helicopter to the hospital in Nuuk, where he remains as of this writing.
It's an interesting move, and a developing situation. Stay tuned.
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