{"id":496891,"date":"2026-02-22T14:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496891\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T14:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:11:11","slug":"trump-says-sending-great-hospital-boat-to-greenland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496891\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says sending &#8216;great hospital boat&#8217; to Greenland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/us-president-donald-trump-russia-ukraine-israel-gaza-tariffs-trade-war\/t-19434433\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US President Donald Trump<\/a> said Saturday he was sending a hospital boat to <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/greenland\/t-71244495\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He said the boat would treat many &#8220;sick&#8221; people in the island.<\/p>\n<p>Trump did not provide any additional details about who he was referring to or the number of people the boat would help.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s on the way!!!,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Denmark&#8217;s defense minister responded to the statement on Sunday, saying Greenland does not need medical assistance from other countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What else did Denmark say?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Greenlandic population receives the health care it needs. They receive it either in Greenland, or, if they require specialized treatment, they receive it in Denmark,&#8221;\u00a0Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish broadcaster DR.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So it&#8217;s not as if there&#8217;s a need for a special health care initiative in Greenland.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There are five regional hospitals in Greenland, with a hospital in the capital Nuuk serving patients from across the territory.<\/p>\n<p>Access to health care is free in Greenland and in Denmark.<\/p>\n<p>Lund Poulsen\u00a0told DR he was not aware of the US hospital ship&#8217;s possible arrival.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Trump is constantly tweeting about Greenland. So this is undoubtedly an expression of the new normal that has taken hold in international politics,&#8221; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Danish Arctic Command evacuates US submariner<\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s post on Saturday came after Denmark&#8217;s Joint Arctic Command said it had evacuated a US submarine crew member who required urgent medical attention.<\/p>\n<p>The submarine was in Greenland&#8217;s waters, seven nautical miles outside of Nuuk.<\/p>\n<p>It was not clear if Trump&#8217;s post about sending a hospital ship was connected in any way to the evacuation.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s Greenland push ratchets up tensions<\/p>\n<p>The announcement, however, gains significance amid a deep rift between the Trump administration and Europe <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/5-graphics-that-show-greenlands-importance-to-trump\/a-75547831\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">over control of the territory.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Greenland, the world&#8217;s largest island, is a mineral-rich, strategically important\u00a0Arctic territory. It is <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/greenland-between-denmark-and-trump\/a-75533481\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">self-governing but remains part of the Kingdom of Denmark.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Trump says the island is <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/why-greenland-matters-arctic-geopolitics\/a-71892279\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">crucial for US national security<\/a> and that he wants to acquire it. He previously even threatened to seize it by force if necessary.<\/p>\n<p>The rhetoric has ratcheted up tensions between Washington and its European NATO allies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Greenland, Denmark and the US have engaged in talks to resolve the situation.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u00a0dialed back his threats after reaching <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/in-greenland-us-nato-deal-met-with-relief-mistrust\/a-75641044\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a &#8220;framework&#8221; deal with NATO chief Mark Rutte<\/a> to ensure greater US influence over Greenland.<\/p>\n<p><img data-format=\"MASTER_LANDSCAPE\" data-id=\"76024705\" data-url=\"https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/76024705_${formatId}.jpg\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\" alt=\"King Frederik X of Denmark (L) stands next to Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and waves as he arrives at Nuuk Airport in Greenland, on February 18, 2026.\" style=\"padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;\"\/>The Danish monarchy and King Frederik X have long enjoyed considerable popularity with much of the population of GreenlandImage: Bo Amstrup\/Ritzau Scanpix\/AFP<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/greenland-denmarks-king-frederik-x-visits-nuuk\/a-76023387\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Denmark&#8217;s King Frederik X visited Greenland.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It was his second visit to the island in a year, an attempt to demonstrate unity with the territory in the face of Trump&#8217;s push to acquire control of the vast island.<\/p>\n<p>Edited by: Kieran Burke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was sending a hospital boat to Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.\u00a0&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-496891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}