Judge denies request for stay of Kennedy Center renaming order

(GREENLAND) — Greenland’s prime minister has rejected President Donald Trump’s offer to send a U.S. military hospital ship to Greenland, dismissing the proposal as uninvited and rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of how Nordic societies function.

“It’s a no thank you from here,” Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a statement Sunday. “President Trump’s idea of sending an American hospital ship here to Greenland has been noted. But we have a public healthcare system where treatment is free for citizens. That is a deliberate choice — and a fundamental part of our society. That is not how it works in the USA, where it costs money to see a doctor.”

Trump made the announcement Saturday evening on his social media platform, posting alongside an illustration of the U.S. naval hospital ship USNS Mercy, saying, “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. It’s on the way!!!”

On Saturday, a U.S. Navy sailor was medically evacuated from an American nuclear-powered submarine by Danish military forces, according to a U.S. and Danish official.

But what prompted Trump to float sending a hospital ship to Greenland isn’t clear, particularly given the Danish territory’s universal health system serving roughly 60,000 citizens. The White House did not return a request for comment.

Trump has long pushed the idea of the U.S. buying Greenland from Denmark, citing national security needs and tapping its natural resources, and has not ruled out taking it by military force over the heated objections of Greenlanders and the Danes. He said in January he had a framework of a deal with Denmark, Greenland and NATO, but revealed few details.

About 80% of Greenlanders have at least annual contact with a primary care doctor, according to data from Queen Ingrid Health Care Centre, the country’s main hospital hub. The figures are even higher for women: roughly 90% report regular contact, compared to 76% of men.

The U.S. Navy has two hospital ships, both currently in Mobile, Alabama, one of which is likely months away from being able to deploy. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The Mercy, whose homeport is San Diego, is a 1,000-bed hospital ship commissioned in 1986 and is deployed for disaster relief and other large-scale medical crises, including in 2020 when it deployed to Los Angeles, where the ship served as a floating relief valve for the city’s overburdened medical system during the first chaotic stretch of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s unclear whether it’s actually preparing to deploy to Greenland. The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for information on why it is in Mobile.

The Navy’s other hospital ship, the USNS Comfort is undergoing extensive maintenance in Mobile expected to last through April 26, according to the repair contract reviewed by ABC News.

Trump said he was working on the matter with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, whom he appointed as a special envoy to Greenland last year. While Landry served in the National Guard for 11 years, he has no significant foreign policy or health care experience.

“We are always open to dialogue and cooperation — also with the USA,” Nielsen said. “But 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.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is facing an escalating crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply remains caught in the crosshairs of the U.S. and Israeli war with Tehran.

Trump downplayed the virtual standstill in and near the vital shipping route, saying on Wednesday it was in “great shape.”

But Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, in a purported first message since taking over for his father, vowed Thursday that his country will continue to block the strait as leverage and capitalize on Iran’s economic weapon.

Attacks on shipping vessels have surged in the Persian Gulf this week, and oil prices jumped to more than $100 per barrel. In the U.S., gas prices rose to a national average of $3.59 a gallon, according to data from AAA.

The International Energy Agency said on Thursday the Middle East conflict is creating “the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.” Member countries of the IEA have said they will release 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves, a first such joint effort since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

To deal with the economic and political fallout at home, President Trump will tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said his department’s been authorized to release 172 million barrels from the reserve starting next week.

But analysts say those solutions are temporary, likely not enough oil in the long term to make up for the 20 million barrels that typically pass through the Strait of Hormuz each day.

Trump told Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade in an interview earlier this week that ships holding at the Strait of Hormuz need to “show some guts” and push through the channel.

Trump on March 3 had announced the U.S. government was going to provide some risk insurance and guarantees after insurers canceled their coverage.

He also said that if necessary, the U.S. Navy would escort tankers through the strait, a potentially risky proposition.

But as of Thursday, Energy Secretary Wright said the U.S. Navy is “not ready” to escort oil tankers because of the military’s current focus on striking Iran.

“It will happen relatively soon, but it can’t happen now. We’re simply not ready. All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran’s offensive capabilities and the manufacturing industry that supplies their offensive capabilities,” Wright told CNBC.

When asked if the U.S. escorting of tankers could happen by the end of the month, Wright said, “I think that is quite likely the case.”

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly, when asked about Wright’s comments, told ABC News that Trump is “fully prepared to provide U.S. Navy escorts through the Strait of Hormuz if he deems it necessary. Our military has destroyed well over 20 inactive mine laying boats with more to come.”

Earlier this week, Trump warned that if Iran disrupted the Strait of Hormuz with mines, “the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before.”

Another potential avenue the White House said it is “considering” to mitigate the crisis is to waive the Jones Act, a century-old law that requires all goods shipped between U.S. ports be carried on U.S. owned-and-operated ships. 

“In the interest of national defense, the White House is considering waiving the Jones Act for a limited period of time to ensure vital energy products and agricultural necessities are flowing freely to U.S. ports. This action has not been finalized,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Thursday. 

Trump, who could face political consequences of higher oil and gasoline prices in this year’s midterm elections, on Thursday tried to spin the rising costs as good for the U.S. overall.

“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

“BUT, of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stoping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World,” Trump added.

He did not comment on how expert say higher oil prices will hurt many companies and American consumers, although Wright, the energy secretary, insisted in an interview with Fox News that the individual consumer is Trump’s main concern.

“Overall for the U.S. economy, this isn’t bad news. But of course [what] President Trump is worried about is not overall, he is worried about every single American consumer. So yes, of course he is concerned about the rising energy prices through this short-term period that people have to suffer,” Wright said. 

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed the Iranian regime was “seriously fractured” as part of his pretext for indefinitely extending the ceasefire with Iran a day before the previous one was set to expire.

“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote in a social media post Tuesday afternoon in which he announced he was prolonging the current ceasefire for an indeterminate period of time. 

Before that, however, Trump repeatedly telegraphed as recently that the U.S. was negotiating with “rational” and “reasonable” individuals in Tehran’s government after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed several of Iran’s senior leaders.

In the preceding days and weeks, the president praised what he portrayed as a new Iranian regime as a better negotiating partner than that which existed prior to the war. 

Even in the hours before his post on Tuesday, Trump said in an interview with CNBC that the leaders now in charge of Iran were “much more rational.”

“It is regime change, no matter what you want to call it, which is not something I said I was going to do, but I’ve done it,” Trump said. 

It’s a sentiment that the president has repeatedly conveyed. 

“Now it’s a new regime, OK, and we find them pretty reasonable, to be honest with you, by comparison pretty reasonable. It really is a new regime, and I think we’re doing very well,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News on April 15. “We have had regime change, because the people we dealt with yesterday were, frankly, very smart, very sharp, very good, very good.”

He followed up those remarks the next day, telling reporters as he departed the White House that Iran has “a new set of leaders, and we find them very reasonable.”

In a phone call on April 17 with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, Trump said he believed he could trust the Iranians and that this will all be resolved “very soon.”

On April 7 as Trump’s deadline for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz approached, he threatened “A whole civilization will die tonight,” but said “now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS.” Hours later, he extended the deadline for another two weeks.

But since then, tensions have continued in the Strait of Hormuz and an effort to restart peace talks in Islamabad this week fell apart.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Wednesday that Tehran would return to the negotiating table when “necessary and logical grounds” are met, according to Iranian state television.

“Diplomacy is a tool for securing national interests and security, and whenever we reach the conclusion that the necessary and logical grounds for using this tool to realize national interests and consolidate the achievements of the Iranian nation in thwarting the enemies from achieving their sinister goals, we will take action,” Baghaei said.

Asked Wednesday by the New York Post in a text message if talks with Iran could resume by Friday as its sources were telling it, Trump replied, “It’s possible! President DJT.”

At the same time, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who Trump had said was “much more reasonable” than the previous regime, said a ceasefire is only “if it is not violated by the maritime blockade and the hostage-taking of the world’s economy, and if the Zionist warmongering across all fronts is halted.”

Ghalibaf said opening the Strait of Hormuz is “impossible with such a flagrant breach of the ceasefire.”

“They did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying. The only way forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation.”

ABC News’ Desiree Adib contributed to this report.

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