I'm not talking about the American public at all. I'm talking about the fact that the Republican Party, and certainly Trump's cabinet, couldn't give a damn about broader public opinion. They care about the opinion of their base, the base that counts during primaries. They're captive to the interest and views of this base, and since Trump has such strong support with this base, he is immune to what 70% of the country thinks, except in a national election, and even then, his claim that he won resonated with that base to the point of insurrection.

And yet, the leadership in the Republican Party continues, across multiple states, to peddle that same claim again and again. You can be appalled, but if your anger cannot translate into broad electoral defeat for the Republicans, it won't matter.
And the Republicans are well insulated from your anger, and the anger of the majority of the public, due to multiple flaws in the structure of American democracy. Which is why your insistence that public anger will force the hand of Trump's cabinet is mystifying.

But I don't disagree. I only disagree that that would change anything. 70% of the public has wanted a lot of things that the Republican Party couldn't give two hoots about.

Personal consequences can be accepted, but failure to stop said war couldn't be. And the fact remains, talking to China in advance and giving them assurances was way more likely to do that than a blind belief that American democracy will somehow rescue itself from the Trump virus, when it has consistently failed to do so in the past 4 years.