DO VOTERS CARE ABOUT A ‘PRESIDENT OF PEACE’? President Donald Trump sometimes calls himself the “president of peace” and says he has “ended eight wars” in less than a year in office. His critics quibble with this or that claim, but politically, there is a bigger problem with the “ended eight wars” assertion: Hardly anyone cares.
Unless there is a shooting war involving the United States going on, Americans have historically cared little about foreign policy. Ask them to name the most important issues facing the country today, and they will invariably put foreign policy at the bottom of the list.
The Gallup polling organization has been asking the question for decades. It’s an open-ended query, allowing for any answer the respondent chooses: “What do you think is the most important problem facing the country today?” As you would expect, the most common answer usually involves the economy. After that come answers involving immigration, healthcare, the quality of government, and other domestic concerns. Put those together, and you have covered the overwhelming majority of the public’s concerns.
In the most recent Gallup poll, from October, just 1% named “war” as the nation’s most important problem. Another 1% named “foreign policy” or “foreign aid.” Another 1% named “international issues.” Less than one-half of one percent cited the “situation with Russia” and “war in the Middle East” and the “situation with China.”
Do you know how someone will say, “I voted for this!” after a report on Trump’s border crackdown or other action popular with his supporters? What about when Trump brags about resolving a dispute between, say, Armenia and Azerbaijan? How many people say, “I voted for this!” Not many.
These are the wars Trump says he has ended:
- Cambodia and Thailand
- Kosovo and Serbia
- Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda
- Pakistan and India
- Israel and Iran
- Egypt and Ethiopia
- Armenia and Azerbaijan
- Israel and Hamas
Did you know about all of these conflicts? Maybe not. Obviously, the two wars involving Israel have been much more in the news than the others. But even with those, the voters’ interest lagged far behind interest in domestic topics. Yet Trump spent a lot of time promoting his image as a peacemaker.
Not long before a few off-year elections that saw Democrats do well by stressing “affordability,” Trump seemed to remember that one of the main reasons he was elected president in 2024 was to deal with the inflation that peaked at 9.1% when Joe Biden was president. Millions of voters chose Trump to fix the economy. If on the side, Trump could settle a dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia, fine. But for a vast number of voters, Trump was elected to do something about the economy.
There are times, of course, when presidents cannot choose the work in front of them. Crises present themselves, and the president has to do something. Now, of course, Trump is trying to end the most serious conflict of all, the war between Russia and Ukraine. He will of course win much praise if he can come up with a solution that satisfies both sides. But he shouldn’t look for it to be a big winner with the voters.