(Dobbs) Donald Trump Is Not The Most Conscientious Seeker Of Facts"Please talk to us instead of just making more or less random statements on social media."
In the bigger scheme of things, this story is not going to rock the world. But it draws a picture of just how uninformed Donald Trump is when he jumps into the deep end of the pool. If he can be so boneheaded on a comparatively small thing like this, then is there any reason to believe he’s any more diligent when the stakes are much higher? We already know the answer to that. The story is Trump’s post on Sunday that “we are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland.” The ship, he wrote, will “take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there.” And then with a closing line reminiscent of his assurance to Iranian protesters last month that “Help is on its way”— help that never came— he ended Sunday’s post about the hospital ship with, “It’s on its way.” Which of course it isn’t. The United States Navy has two hospital ships, the USNS Comfort and the USNS Mercy. It’s the Mercy depicted in the image on Trump’s post. But here’s the problem: they’re both at a shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, in dry dock. Sunday, the Alabama shipyard posted a picture of both ships. Neither appeared to be steaming to Greenland. Maintenance on the Comfort isn’t expected to be finished until the end of April. The Mercy went in for maintenance last July. The Navy said the work would take a year. But that’s not the punchline here. Nor is this, although it could be: an Instagram post from Greenland’s prime minister that began, “It’s going to be a no thank you from here.” Jens-Frederik Nielsen told the American president, “We have a public health system where treatment is free for citizens. It’s a deliberate choice. And a basic part of our society.” You’ve got to admire the cheek of this guy, prime minister to a population of fewer than 60,000 people, telling the president of the United States how things work. And making no bones about it. “It’s not like that in the United States,” he wrote, “where it costs money to go to the doctor.” He didn’t stop there. Evidently exasperated by all the abuse his nation has had to endure from Donald Trump, he went on to write, “Please talk to us instead of just making more or less random statements on social media. Dialogue and cooperation require respect for the fact that decisions about our country are made here at home.” That, of course, is a concept lost on Donald J. Trump. And the captains of Nielsen’s mother ship, Denmark, backed him up. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also wrote on Instagram, without making direct reference to Trump, that she is “happy to live in a country where access to healthcare is free and equal for all, where insurance or wealth does not determine whether one receives dignified treatment.” Her defense minister said in his own statement, “The Greenlandic population receives the health care it needs.” And then he also scolded the U.S. president who has threatened that if he deems it necessary for national security, the United States will “take” Greenland “one way or the other”: “Trump is constantly tweeting about Greenland. So this is undoubtedly an _expression_ of the new normal that has taken hold in international politics.” It is a new normal that brings more chaos than comfort. Share And now, the punchline you’ve been waiting for: no one knows where Trump’s uninvited offer of a thousand-bed hospital ship for Greenland even came from. All anyone can figure out is this: there was a medical emergency. But it wasn’t actually on Greenland. It was on a ship about seven miles offshore. To be precise, it was a medical emergency with a crew member on an American ship, the USS Delaware, a submarine. According to the Arctic Command, Denmark’s Greenland-based military detachment, “The crew member required urgent medical treatment and has been transferred to the Greenlandic health authorities and the hospital in Nuuk. The evacuation took place within Greenlandic territorial waters, 7 nautical miles off Nuuk. It was carried out by the Danish Defence Seahawk helicopter.” Just hours later, Trump announced the imminent arrival of the Mercy. Which Greenland doesn’t need. And doesn’t want. And apparently isn’t really coming anyway. It has long been observed that this president will take action based on whatever he hears from the last person to whisper in his ear. Or the last post he sees on Twitter, where anyone can say anything and get away with it. To put it mildly, the president is not the most conscientious seeker of facts. It all makes one wonder, when Donald Trump is making decisions of far greater import— a threat to wage war on Iran might qualify here— is he any more prone to research than he was with the report of a medical emergency in Greenland? We already know the answer to that one too. |