President Donald Trump announced in February that he would deploy a hospital ship to Greenland, saying many people there are sick and not receiving care. Greenlandic and Danish leaders swiftly rejected the offer, defending their free public healthcare system and questioning both its necessity and feasibility.
The announcement highlighted fresh tensions between Trump and allied Denmark over the president’s repeated interest in acquiring the resource-rich Arctic territory, and exposed a gap between Trump’s claims about Greenland’s healthcare system and the account offered by its leaders.
President Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would send a hospital ship to Greenland. Calling Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry “fantastic,” Trump said the vessel would address what he portrayed as widespread sickness and inadequate care in the Arctic territory.
“We’re going to send a big hospital ship to Greenland to care for the many people who are sick and who are not being taken care of there,” Trump wrote. “It’s already on the way.”
The Rejection
The offer was rejected within hours. Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, said the proposal was unnecessary.
“We have a public healthcare system where treatment is free for citizens. That’s a deliberate choice—and a fundamental part of our society,” Nielsen said in remarks to Danish news outlets. “That’s not how it works in the United States, where it costs money to see a doctor.”
“But please, talk to us instead of just making somewhat random statements on social media,” Nielsen added.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen defended her nation’s healthcare system on Facebook. “I’m happy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health for everyone,” she wrote. “Where insurance and wealth do not determine whether you get proper treatment.”
Aaja Chemnitz, one of two Greenlandic politicians in Denmark’s national parliament, called the move desperate. Trump “wants to send a poorly maintained hospital ship to Greenland,” she wrote. “It seems quite desperate and does nothing to build the permanent, sustainable healthcare system we need.”
Why the Offer Doesn’t Work
There is a practical obstacle to Trump’s announcement: the hospital ships are not available. The U.S. Navy operates two hospital vessels, the USNS Mercy and the USNS Comfort. Both were docked in a shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, according to images and postings from the shipyard itself. Neither had been deployed nor was in transit to Greenland.
When asked about the status of the hospital ships and Trump’s statement, the Pentagon deferred to the White House. The Navy similarly referred questions to the White House, which did not respond to repeated requests for information.
Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Denmark’s public radio that authorities in Copenhagen had not been informed that a U.S. hospital ship was being sent. “We were not informed,” he said.
Yet Trump’s announcement came just days after a demonstration that Greenland’s healthcare system already functions effectively. The Danish military’s Arctic contingent evacuated a U.S. submarine crew member off Greenland’s coast who required urgent medical care. The sailor was transported by Danish helicopter to a hospital in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, roughly seven nautical miles from where he was rescued. The evacuation illustrated that Denmark’s military and Greenland’s healthcare system were positioned to respond to medical emergencies, directly contradicting Trump’s premise that people in Greenland lack access to care.
The Broader Tension
The hospital-ship proposal was the latest point of friction in an ongoing discussion between Trump and Denmark over Greenland’s strategic future. Trump has repeatedly suggested, at times directly and at times more subtly, that the United States should acquire the mineral-rich territory, positioned at a critical point in the Arctic.
The United States and Denmark, NATO allies since the alliance’s founding, have maintained traditionally solid bilateral relations since World War II. In recent months, those ties have been strained as Trump intensified rhetoric about a possible U.S. acquisition of the island. Greenland and Denmark, which maintains sovereignty over the territory, have repeatedly ruled out any change in status.
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