Am rly unsure how this will play out if he actually means it seriously as a policy and the other stewards of the empire go along with it

Cuz if they are no longer satisfied with the imperial-partner relationship with Canada and want actual de jure control over the country, which is quite rare in the neocolonial era, it would be even more overtly imperialistic than American involvement in Europe. The European states aren’t US states at least lol. Maybe they could get Canada to do it through economic force (would this be a first? Annexation via sanctions I mean) but in the context of all the other shit he’s talking about use of military force I don’t rly think we should rule it out on the basis of him saying he won’t use military force in this instance. All this shit seems reckless as hell from their perspective but maybe they do have some kind of new grand plan to stop American imperial decline, if we accept this is even possibly going to happen I don’t think we can rule very much out at this point

I think full military engagement is extremely unlikely though ofc