\u201cPlease talk to us instead of just making more or less random statements on social media,\u201d Nielsen said later in the statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cDialogue and co-operation require respect for the fact that decisions about our country are made here at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maritime tracking data further suggests there are no US hospital ships currently positioned to sail to Greenland.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s post yesterday on Truth Social follows months in which he unsettled European allies by threatening to take the Arctic territory from Denmark. <\/p>\n
The White House eventually backed down and said the US will instead seek strategic agreements with Denmark. But the post signals that Trump may remain focused on provoking Denmark.<\/p>\n
The President\u2019s unexpected announcement came as Denmark revealed there was a case of medical distress near the island needing emergency attention. But it was the US that needed the help. <\/p>\n
Denmark\u2019s Arctic Command reported that it had evacuated a crew member of a US submarine in need of doctors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crew member required urgent medical treatment and has been transferred to the Greenlandic health authorities and the hospital in Nuuk,\u201d the Arctic Command said a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe evacuation took place within Greenlandic territorial waters, 7 nautical miles off Nuuk. It was carried out by the Danish Defence Seahawk helicopter. The helicopter was deployed from the inspection vessel V\u00e6dderen.\u201d<\/p>\n
That event was followed later in the day by Trump\u2019s post, which featured what appears to be an AI-generated illustration of the USNS Mercy steaming towards the Arctic territory. <\/p>\n
Trump made no mention of the emergency evacuation of the US sailor. He declared that he was \u201cgoing 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\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s on the way!!!\u201d said the post, which also reported that Trump was executing the action together with his envoy to Greenland, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry.<\/p>\n
Denmark quickly dismissed Trump\u2019s announcement, saying it was not aware of any medical emergency in Greenland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs,\u201d Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Denmark\u2019s public broadcaster, DR. <\/p>\n
\u201cTrump is constantly tweeting about Greenland. So this is undoubtedly an expression of the new normal that has taken hold in international politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denmark\u2019s Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, also appeared to rebuff Trump\u2019s plan, without mentioning him by name. <\/p>\n
She wrote on Instagram that she is happy to live in a country where healthcare is free to everyone and that Greenland enjoys the same system.<\/p>\n
The US Navy operates two hospital ships, the USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy. Neither appears ready to deploy any time soon, and both were at a maintenance facility, Alabama Shipyard in Mobile, according to ship-tracking data.<\/p>\n
Navy officials and officials with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s team referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond.<\/p>\n
In December, the Pentagon said it had signed a US$16.7 million contract with the shipyard to place the Comfort in an extended period of maintenance beginning January 15 with expected completion by April 26.<\/p>\n
In June, the Pentagon signed a US$18.7m deal with the same shipyard to place the Mercy in extended maintenance. Navy officials later said the work would take about a year.<\/p>\n
According to gCaptain, a website that monitors ship movements, the Mercy \u201cwas firmly in dry dock\u201d as of late January.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cPlease talk to us instead of just making more or less random statements on social media,\u201d Nielsen said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,9344,16425,13473,665,111305,19796,163825,5532,3246,536,11519,39538,4527,2178,16773,8560,305,42,5838,2241,3096,13840,5829,119633,43,7805,1523,2572,29312,16134,14775,3466,60776,27916,26887,9939,103847,1361,223,61,40,38,41,39,19096,9938,3040,4524,4767,6730],"class_list":{"0":"post-297328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-announcement","10":"tag-appears","11":"tag-arctic","12":"tag-around","13":"tag-atlantic","14":"tag-available","15":"tag-befuddlement","16":"tag-boat","17":"tag-both","18":"tag-care","19":"tag-causing","20":"tag-danish","21":"tag-doesnt","22":"tag-donald","23":"tag-great","24":"tag-greenland","25":"tag-have","26":"tag-headlines","27":"tag-help","28":"tag-hospital","29":"tag-islands","30":"tag-like","31":"tag-many","32":"tag-neglected","33":"tag-news","34":"tag-no","35":"tag-over","36":"tag-president","37":"tag-presidents","38":"tag-remarks","39":"tag-send","40":"tag-sending","41":"tag-ships","42":"tag-sick","43":"tag-sides","44":"tag-states","45":"tag-territory","46":"tag-that","47":"tag-the","48":"tag-to","49":"tag-top-news","50":"tag-top-stories","51":"tag-topnews","52":"tag-topstories","53":"tag-trumps","54":"tag-united","55":"tag-us","56":"tag-want","57":"tag-weekend","58":"tag-would"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}