In more senile rambling, Donald Trump said Saturday that he’s ordering a hospital boat to Greenland “to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there.”
That’s strange coming from a guy who quit sending all sorts of American medical assistance to people around the world last year, raising the possibility of 2.5 million additional dying children and 9.4 million deaths overall by 2030. That’s 167 times more deaths than Greenland’s entire population of 56,000.
Greenland’s population doesn’t need a boat or American health care. Those 56,000 Greenlanders, like over 6 million Danes, get better health care than Americans from Denmark’s single-payer health system:
“That will be ‘no thanks’ from us,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the Greenlandic prime minister, wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.
“President Trump’s idea to send a US hospital ship here to Greenland has been duly noted. But we have a public health system where care is free for citizens,” he said.
…In Greenland, as in Denmark, access to healthcare is free at the point of use and funded by the taxpayer. Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, responded to Trump’s social post by defending her country’s system.
Writing on Facebook, Frederiksen said she was “happy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health for all. Where it’s not insurances and wealth that determine whether you get proper treatment.”
She added that Greenland had “the same approach” as Denmark.
Troels Lund Poulsen, the Danish defence minister, also rejected Trump’s claim that people in Greenland were being denied medical treatment.
“The Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs,” he told the Danish broadcaster DR. “They receive it either in Greenland, or, if they require specialised treatment, they receive it in Denmark. So it’s not as if there’s a need for a special healthcare initiative in Greenland.”
…There are six hospitals in Greenland serving a population of fewer than 60,000 people. In early February, the territory’s government signed an agreement with Copenhagen to improve Greenlandic patients’ access to treatment in hospitals in Denmark [Deborah Cole, “Greenland Says ‘No, Thanks’ to Trump’s US Hospital Boat,” The Guardian, 2026.02.22].
Six hospitals for 56,000 people—that’s one for every 9,300 Greenlanders. South Dakota has 56 hospitals for 930,000 people—one for every 17,000 South Dakotans.
Maybe Denmark should send hospital boats to America.
If a Greenlander would get medical care on the US boat, would they then be billed like we Americans are for our medical services? A crushing bankruptcy-level bill will surely sway Greenlanders to move from their socialist medical model.
Look at the view from a hospital ship. Take a trip to Iceland, have surgery. Nice combination. You can’t beat it.
Pardon our President world, he’s senile and those surrounding him are enablers. Just three more years and this year he’ll lose the house and senate. Just binge watch your favorite shows in the meantime.