Denmark has declared that Greenland does not need the US hospital ship that Donald Trump just dispatched to the Arctic territory - but Washington is sending it anyway. The uninvited medical mission marks a sharp escalation in Trump's pressure campaign on the Danish autonomous territory, testing the limits of NATO solidarity and raising urgent questions about European sovereignty.
The move comes after weeks of Trump openly discussing his desire to acquire Greenland, including suggesting he might use "economic force" to do so. Copenhagen has repeatedly rejected any discussion of territorial transfer, calling Greenland's status non-negotiable. Now Washington is bypassing Danish objections entirely, deploying American military medical assets to an ally's territory over explicit protests.
"This is what happens when a US president treats a NATO ally like a weak state whose sovereignty is optional," said a senior EU diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If Europe cannot defend Denmark's territorial integrity over Greenland, what message does that send about the Baltic states? About Poland?"
The hospital ship deployment is particularly troubling to European security analysts because it bypasses the normal frameworks of alliance cooperation. NATO members routinely conduct joint operations and provide mutual assistance - but those arrangements happen through diplomatic channels, with host nation consent. Trump's approach resembles the unilateral projection of power into another country's sovereign space.
Brussels has remained conspicuously silent on the Greenland crisis, exposing the EU's limited capacity to defend member states against American pressure. is a full EU member, and is constitutionally part of the Danish realm despite its autonomous status. Yet no European Commission statement has condemned 's actions, and no European Council emergency session has been called.
