An MSNBC host floated the outlandish possibility that the US could be fighting a military war with Canada in a matter of days. Katy Tur was speaking on Tuesday with Canadian journalist Stephen Marche – whose article in The Atlantic evokes the chance of an armed conflict with the US’s neighbor to the North.

‘Stephen, let me ask you about the article you wrote for The Atlantic – and I sent this around to my friends,’ Tur began. ‘Just the very fact that it was published, I think is surprising – that we can have a conversation that is serious about what a war with Canada would look like. Explain why it’s no longer unthinkable,’ she pressed the journalist on her show, Katy Tur Reports.

Marche (pictured) replied by blaming the rhetoric of President Trump for egging on a potential military battle between the longstanding allies. ‘Well, because Donald Trump makes us think it, right?’ he said. ‘I mean, he talks about annexing us on a regular basis. I mean somewhere around two percent of the American population actually wants to do this, but you know at this point in history, you know, the American people can obviously be convinced of anything right?’ he argued. ‘And already, you see numbers of Republicans who consider Canada an enemy to be growing… ‘And you know, I think when countries are in constitutional crisis and when their legal systems start to fall apart , violence against neighboring countries is a very common – to me, it’s very intimately tied with this talk about being a third-term president ,’ Marche said.

‘That’s exactly, that’s out of the playbook of authoritarian governments around the world. ‘And so Canada really does need to think about protecting ourselves from the United States and making sure that we’re not just a snack,’ he argued. Marche made similar arguments in his piece for The Atlantic, which was published over the weekend – just ahead of Trump’s meeting with the new Canadian Prime Minister.

‘Donald Trump’s pointless and malicious trade war has been, by his own account, a prelude to softening up Canada economically so that it can be appropriated as the 51st state,’ the journalist wrote. ‘He has brought up his plans for incorporating Canada into the union with Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney in private calls. ‘Canada could no longer comfortably sit within the American military sphere,’ Marche declared. ‘In this stark moment, our nation has abruptly become an adversary of the most powerful country in the world.’

He goes on to argue that Canada would not be seized easily, and weighs the possibility of an armed conflict. Ultimately, Marche concludes: ‘If Trump decides to run again, a manufactured emergency over Canada would be a convenient excuse for overturning the constitutional barriers. Nobody wants to believe that a continental conflict could happen,’ he continues, noting, ‘Very few Ukrainians, right up to the point of Russia’s 2022 invasion, believed their malignant neighbor would invade. ‘Canada cannot afford complacency,’ Marche wrote.

The discussion came as Trump met with the new Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, inside the White House on Tuesday. During their conversation, Trump once again brought up his idea to make the northern nation the United States’ ’51st state.’ He claimed that the U.S.-Canada border was an ‘artificially drawn line’ and if they joined together it would be a ‘wonderful marriage.’ He added: ‘But it takes two to tango, right?’ Carney appeared to squirm in his seat and fired back that Canada was ‘not for sale.’

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