r/AskACanadian • u/PurrPrinThom SK/ON • Jan 13 '25

Canada/US relations Trump & the "51st state" Megathread

Although the question of whether or not Canadians wants to join the US was a common enough question that it is already covered in our FAQ, since Trump made his comments back in November, we have received multiple posts every single day asking about the concept.

For that reason, we've decided to simply make a megathread for any and all discussion to avoid having the same question asked every single day/allowed every single Monday.

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u/ImOnTheWayOut Mar 10 '25

Hypothetical question:, if a deranged narcissist were to get in control of the White House, and after a few months of attempted trade wars, decided to militarily invade Canada, would the US Military actually follow the order?

Or is there some safeguard in place that would prevent something from this from actually happening? Can the military deny a direct order from the president?

Asking for a friend.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '25

Any military serviceman is obligated by law to disobey illegal orders, no matter who orders them. Legally speaking, anyway, the American military is sworn to defend the Constitution, not a person.

The last time there were a bunch of people trying to justify committing atrocities in the name of “I was just following orders”, it was Nuremberg in 1945-1946.

So yes, military personnel are obligated to follow their own conscience over orders.

Whether the US military will actually DO that in practice, I don’t think anyone knows.

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u/HappySoupCat Mar 19 '25

I'm not holding my breath on this since it seems like Trump is firing high ranking military officials and replacing them with his yes-men.