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Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort we feel when we hold two or more conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. One of Donald Trump’s super powers has been the ability to hold his coalition together in the face of the conflicts inherent in his agenda, but lately there are signs of the coalition cracking over issues of war and peace and the protracted negotiations with Communist China.
On the campaign trail last year, President Donald Trump talked tough about imposing tariffs as high as 60% on Chinese goods and threatened to renew the trade war with China that he launched during his first term. And he appointed former Senator Marco Rubio, known as a Red China Hawk, to be his Secretary of State.
During his confirmation hearing, Rubio said China has “lied, cheated, hacked and stolen” its way to global superpower status “at our expense.” He called China “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.”
The Trump administration also launched a crackdown on Chinese international students living in the US, threatening to revoke student visas of those associated with the Chinese Communist Party or who evidence suggests pose threats to US national security.
Anti-Communists in the Trump coalition were thrilled, until the President began to send an entirely different message as negotiations with Communist China began in earnest.
Then, after postponing a huge increase in tariffs on Communist Chinese products, the President in late August 2025 stated that the U.S. would accept 600,000 Chinese students over two years.
On X, Trump ally Laura Loomer wrote: "Nobody, I repeat nobody, wants 600,000 more Chinese 'students' aka Communist spies in the United States."
"I just don't understand it for the life of me," said Fox News host Laura Ingraham. "Those are 600,000 spots that American kids won't get."
"I have a very good relationship with [Chinese] President Xi. I think it's very insulting to a country when you say you're not going to take your students," Trump told the Daily Caller.
Saying it would be "insulting" to ban them, the President put Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s claim that 15% of American colleges and universities would go bankrupt without Communist Chinese students ahead of America’s national security interests.
But so far, the coalition is holding, and critics, such as Laura Ingraham, Laura Loomer and the team at ConservativeHQ, have withheld openly breaking with Trump over the issue.
The same cannot be said for those critical of President Trump’s policies that excite cognitive dissonance in matters of war and peace.
While President Trump’s most ardent supporters continue to somehow balance the notions that Mr. Trump wants to be “the peace President” while at the same time bombing Iranian nuclear facilities and Venezuelan drug boats, softer members of the coalition, such as Tucker Carlson and Senator Rand Paul, have been harshly critical and on the verge of breaking with the President.
Carlson, always an opponent of American support for Israel, said Trump was “complicit in the act of war” when Israel launched attacks on Iran.
As NBC News observed, “Carlson was center stage among MAGA influencers arguing for the United States to stay out of Iran, a position that has gained popularity on the right as some right-wing influencers have increasingly viewed the U.S.-Israel alliance with skepticism. That stance is also informed by Trump’s having promoted similar anti-war and anti-interventionist views for years, even as he has used military force as president.”
When President Trump announced on his Truth social media platform, “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere. The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike,” Senator Rand Paul was even more direct about the bombing of the Venezuelan drug boat.
Responding to a social media post by Vice President J.D. Vance that, “Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” Senator Paul questioned on social media how Vance could justify killing people accused of a crime without a trial.
“Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation??” Paul asked in a social media post. “What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”
In the responses to his post Senator Paul got ratioed badly, but there’s no denying the non-interventionist wing of the Trump coalition was not happy over the bombing of the boat and the deployment of F-35s to Puerto Rico as a follow up.
However, the most difficult example of cognitive dissonance President Trump must finesse is his decision – as the Peace President – to revert the name of the Department of Defense to its previous nomenclature: the Department of War.
One may resolve, or at least mitigate, the cognitive dissonance in Trump’s Communist China policy and his Middle East policy by arguing the complexities of the issues and that the dissonant elements of Trump’s policies will be resolved in some yet to be finalized “deal.”
But War and Peace are different. When used as verbs of being, indicating in what state a country exists at a given moment, one cannot be “at war” and “at peace” at the same time.
Some will argue that “Peace through Strength” allows for offensive operations when the country is “at peace.” This is nonsense and a deflection to avoid the need to recognize that President Trump’s actions are out of sync with his rhetoric – a textbook example of cognitive dissonance.
In politics, when faced with cognitive dissonance most people will deflect or rationalize their preferred candidate’s actions, but some will change their opinion, and candidate, to resolve the dissonant elements of the situation. And this cognitive dissonance from President Trump’s latest warlike moves, in sharp conflict with his previous rhetoric, have opened up a new crack, or at least a weakening of the bonds, between the President and the non-interventionist members of his coalition.
- Donald Trump cabinet
- Trump foreign policy
- Trump China policy
- Trump China tariffs
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio
- Senator Rand Paul
- Tucker Carlson
- Chinese student visas
- Trump Iran bombing mission
- Xi Jinping
- Venezuelan drug boats
- TDA strike
- Department of War name change
- cognitive dissonance
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