Canadian actor comments on Trump's 51st state calls
William Shatner will boldly go to Donald Trump to make a counter offer after the president's repeated called to make Canada the 51st state. The Canadian-born actor was invited onto Jesse Watters Primetime Tuesday night to discuss Trump's Oval Office meeting with new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, when the president doubled down on his desire to annex the northern country.
Speaking to the Fox News host about Trump's proposal, Shatner suggested Carney should make 'a counter offer. 'Let's offer Canada to the United States to be the 11th province,' he joked, sending Watters roaring with laughter. 'It's the best thing,' the Star Trek star continued. 'Here you have a friendly group of people saying "Come on over. It's cleaner, there's plenty of power, there's some lovely people who want to work with you. Be our 11th province."'
Shatner went on to note that 'everyone is so serious about what is an unserious offer,' noting that Canada has been an independent nation for more than 150 years. He also called Trump's calls for Canada to be annexed 'denigrating.' But he is not the only one, with Carney admonishing the president inside the Oval Office and telling him that Canada is 'not for sale.' Meanwhile, over on MSNBC, host Katy Tur seemed to suggest the United States could go to war with its northern neighbor in a matter of days.
She was speaking with Canadian journalist Stephen Marche, who recently wrote an article for The Atlantic evoking an armed conflict between the two nations. '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,' Tur pressed the journalist on her show Tuesday. Marche replied by blaming the rhetoric of President Trump for egging on a potential military battle between the longstanding allies.
'I mean, he talks about annexing us on a regular basis,' he said. '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?' Marche 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,' the journalist continued. '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.
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