Because I found it difficult to believe that even the Brits would actually use a plural verb when
the USA or
the United States or
the US is the subject of a sentence, I did a quick search on the BNC (British National Corpus).
.
- A search for "the USA are" got no results whatsoever for that usage.
.
- A search for "the US are" also had no no results.
.
- A search for "the United States are" got
one single result for that usage.
.
Therefore, I must assume that it is actually quite rare for even the Brits to use a plural verb when referring to the US.
I would never even consider doing it. It sounds absolutely AWFUL!
