Leaders in Denmark are rejecting an announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump this weekend that seemed to indicate the San Diego-based Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy is being deployed to Greenland.
“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,” the president posted on Truth Social. “It’s on the way!!! President DJT.”
The post was accompanied by a rendering of the Mercy, apparently indicating that it was the one being deployed of the two Navy hospital ships in the U.S fleet.
The other such ship is the USNS Comfort, which is home-ported in Virginia.
Both ships are currently moored in Alabama for repairs, the Mercy since last summer and the Comfort since last month. It was unclear which ship the president was referring to.
Representatives of the U.S. Navy in San Diego could not be reached for comment Sunday.
The response from Denmark was swift.
Denmark’s defense minister said on Sunday that his country had not been made aware of Trump’s plan.
Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Denmark’s public broadcaster, DR, that there was “no need for special health care efforts” in Greenland.
Greenland is an Arctic island and a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump has been on record saying he wants to make Greenland a territory of the United States.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark wrote in an Instagram post, “I’m happy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health care for everyone. The same approach exists in Greenland.”
