Mark Carney Reveals Secret Preparations for Trump Attack on Canada

Evelyn Hockstein / REUTERS Canada quietly prepared for the possibility that Donald Trump could order military action against the country, Prime Minister Mark Carney has revealed.

Canada and the U.S., two close allies, have been embroiled in a row since Trump threatened to make Canada the 51st U.S. state.

Trump has repeatedly questioned the permanence of the Canada-U.S. border, arguing that the centuries-old boundary was an artificial line that could be redrawn through force and persuasion.

“Somebody drew that line many years ago with, like, a ruler – just a straight line right across the top of the country,” Trump told Carney last year.

He later posted an altered image showing the U.S. flag covering Canada, Greenland and Venezuela.

The rhetoric unsettled Canadians: a 2025 poll found 43 percent believed a U.S. military attack on Canada within five years was at least somewhat likely, including 10 percent who considered it highly likely or certain.

Trump ruled out using military force to annex Canada in 2025, saying he would instead use “economic force” to pursue his vision of Canada becoming part of the United States.

But his repeated comments have nonetheless prompted Ottawa to consider how it would respond to more extreme scenarios.

Carney told the New York Times he spent the past year planning for what he called the “extreme tail risk” of a U.S. attack against Canada.

“I think you have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk,” Carney said.

“That’s just risk management.

That’s not a base case, but it would be irresponsible not to” prepare, he added.

But while Ottawa was quietly preparing for the extreme possibility of a military confrontation, the conflict between the two neighbors has largely played out on economic turf.

Trump’s threats against Canada were followed by a sweeping tariff fight, with Trump imposing a 50 percent tariff on approximately $20 billion worth of Canadian products under a previously unused provision of the Tariff Act of 1930 after trade talks between the two countries broke down.