As candidates battle to win seats across the country, another war — and one much more sinister — is simultaneously being fought: the war for the American mind, waged by America’s global adversaries.
A new report by Independent Women details how America’s adversaries are exploiting the digital world Americans use every day, gaining ground on our country not through bombs or bullets, but through psychological manipulation and information warfare.
Report author Meaghan Mobbs writes in the foreword, “The modern battlefield does not always look like a battlefield. It looks like a video that makes you cry before you know the facts. A story that tells you who the victim is and who the villain is before you have time to ask. A feed that learns what frightens you; what enrages you; what makes you feel compassionate, righteous, ashamed, or alone—then quietly serves you more of it. The danger is not that women care too much. The danger is that someone else can learn how to aim that care with remarkable precision.”
Even as millions of Americans consider who to vote for on Tuesday, our foreign adversaries are seeking to influence those decisions through digital infiltration. When you open TikTok or Instagram, when you search for information on X or Facebook, you are exposed to this battlefield.
Leading up to the 2026 midterms, Russia, China, and Iran — the same common offenders cited in the report — are ramping up influence efforts on social media. They have increased their budgets for influence operations. Bloomberg reported on October 14 that these adversarial nations are increasingly leveraging generative AI systems to weaponize deceptive narratives, according to intelligence sources and research analysts. On the same day, X announced a purge of 13,000 accounts — bots tied to these countries’ influence campaigns. TikTok and Meta also conducted account deletions earlier in the year due to suspected foreign influence campaign involvement.
The purpose of the influence efforts is to deepen political disagreements, erode American confidence in election processes, and exacerbate domestic discord, rather than targeting particular political candidates. It is death by a thousand cuts — election interference by a thousand bots, a thousand fake videos, a thousand divisive voices. The account that you go to for a hot take? It might be a far more nefarious internet presence, paid for by America’s adversaries, with the sole purpose of undermining America’s foundations.
Shaping how Americans form opinions and interact with opposing viewpoints, social media algorithms can fuel an engine of polarization. Feeds maximize engagement and systematically prioritize content that provokes strong emotional reactions. Over time, users are funneled into ideological echo chambers where existing beliefs are reinforced, and the “opposition” is portrayed as not just wrong, but intrinsically threatening. Likes, shares, and engagement rewards outrage. Feeds tend to reduce complex issues to a viral take. Social fragmentation occurs when Americans stop seeing those with different views as fellow citizens and instead see them as enemies to be defeated. This is exactly what America’s adversaries want.
In 1838, Abraham Lincoln delivered a profound line in his famous Lyceum speech, saying that “if destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we shall live forever or die by suicide.” He knew that the enemy within was just as dangerous as the enemy outside. Internal social fragmentation and instability have proven to be among the most reliable precursors to civilizational collapse. When shared identity dissolves and competing factions exhaust the institutions designed to hold them together, it becomes increasingly difficult for a nation to remain strong.
So what can you do to arm yourself against the war for your mind?
The report urges every American to adopt five specific defensive tactics. First, ask every piece of content who benefits from your believing it. Second, notice when a feed is escalating your emotion, and treat the escalation itself as data. Third, remember that your compassion can be exploited and your outrage engineered. When something makes you certain within 10 seconds, slow down. Fourth, keep friendships that cross political lines, because they are the living refutation of the enemy’s central claim. Fifth, anchor identity in things no algorithm can adjudicate: family, faith, competence, service, and the affections of real life.
The focus on this war for America’s mind is not to deny the differences that Americans truly do have, the variations in perspectives, or the reality of our political disagreements. The point of discussing this war is to expose the real and present dangers posed to Americans and the potential that other countries have to undermine the most fundamental structures in American society. Participate in elections, participate in civic dialogue in-person or online, by all means; but do not mistake a foreign bot attempting to attack your mind as a fellow American with whom you differ on policy positions.
This election season, it is not just the candidates battling — it is global actors. Arm yourself against the onslaught of foreign influence. Know how to navigate the war for America’s mind — because the battlefield is you.
Anna Pingel is a visiting fellow with the Independent Women’s Center for American Safety and Security.