By Kaitlyn Walker-Spencer
On a post from the official White House Instagram, the president wrote: “Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters back into our Country…” In typical populist fashion, Donald Trump’s Easter message managed to crucify former president Joe Biden and the left, but somehow failed to mention resurrection, Jesus, or God. On a holiday that Christians use to celebrate forgiveness and new life, the president who claims he will make America “more religious than ever” used the holy day as a tool to further divide the country along political lines.
Across the world, Serbian president Alexander Vučić turned Easter into an opportunity to talk about Kosovo, using religion as the excuse. In the Kremlin, the Serbian Orthodox patriarch decided to honor Jesus by stating that he hoped to “overcome the colored revolution”—arguing that “the West does not wish to nurture the identity of the Serbian people or their culture.” Echoing the anti-Western rhetoric of President Aleksandar Vučić, the patriarch, (who according to a 2022 study is the most trusted figure in the nation for youth ages 15-30), made it clear that the church was not for the people, but for the government.
In both the United States and Serbia, the rise of populism has led to the co-optation of religion as a political instrument. Once a moral counterbalance to power—as when Serbian Patriarch Pavle protested Milošević in the 1990s—the church is now increasingly an echo chamber for nationalist leaders. This instrumentalization of religion has dire consequences, particularly for women: it fuels anti-gender rhetoric and undermines women’s rights. The rise of populism in both Serbia and the U.S. has blurred the line between church and state, as leaders strategically use religion and performative female representation to uphold anti-gender, patriarchal systems
Oftentimes, anti-gender mobilizations operate under the guise of protecting women, but in reality, they are tools for populist polarization. One example? Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth in the Federal Government.” This one sentence contains most of the plays in the populist playbook. First, he creates a broad victim– women. Not all women, just protecting the “regular women,” from the “others”, the scary extremists, promoting their gender agendas. He makes it clear that there is a common enemy and he cares about women, despite actively hurting women by signing numerous executive orders ending DEI and overturning Roe vs Wade.
In Serbia, we see similar moves from the Vučić administration—initiatives that appear to support women but ultimately offer no concrete change. Gender quotas in government or the appointment of a lesbian prime minister, for example, are often symbolic gestures aimed at appealing to the European Union, rather than genuine efforts to shift power structures. While women may hold prominent titles, they often lack real influence. They are elevated as representatives of progress, but in practice, serve as symbolic puppets of the state.
This global phenomenon is best described as “femopopulism”—the strategic placement of women in political roles to uphold nationalist and patriarchal systems. From Belgrade to Washington, governments are increasingly pro-female in optics, but anti-woman in substance.
Take Trump’s administration: while a third of his cabinet members are women, their presence seems designed to reinforce conservative gender norms rather than challenge them. When appointed the youngest white house press secretary in history Karoline Leavitt wrote on instagram: Thank you President Trump for believing in me. Thank you to my family and friends for always supporting me. Thank you to my son for humbling me, and serving as a constant reminder of what’s most important. Thank you God for everything. Let’s MAGA! 🇺🇸” She represents the perfect populist woman; family centered, putting her son first, god loving, humble, and nationalistic. This careful self-styling makes powerful women more socially acceptable by aligning them with domestic and patriotic ideals—repackaging power in a non-threatening, traditionalist form.
These women are clearly accomplished, but they embody a narrow archetype within right-wing populist discourse: family-oriented, entrepreneurial, flag-waving Americans who publicly prioritize their households over their careers. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat’s page is littered with American flags and bible quotes. Tulsi Gabbard is a soldier, congresswoman, and author. Kelly Loeffler calls herself a “Proud American, Entrepreneur, Conservative, Philanthropist…” In this age of global populism, the most powerful women don’t uplift other women—they reinforce systems that benefit themselves and the men who lead them.
Back in Serbia, the situation is no better. As Bojana Kisa, a feminist, Christian, and working mother of three from Belgrade, explained: “It is a patriarchal society and it will hardly change, but I think they really have respect for women because they are mothers…” For her, as for many others, respect for women stems not from their intellect, labor, or autonomy—but from their biological capacity to bear children, echoing similar sentiments seen in American conservative politics. This is the foundation upon which both state and church often build their so-called support for women.
Svetlana Stefanović, a highly accomplished professional, described how being unmarried and childless is seen as a social failure. “We have a very ugly word for those who decide to live by themselves… usually you are a ‘granny girl’ (baba devojka)… And I know this because I’m from a small city. We always have some kind of levels you need to achieve. So if you fail any one, you really didn’t succeed—finish faculty, find a job, find a man, have one kid, have two kids, and afterwards, who cares.” Instead of caring about a woman’s happiness, agency or satisfaction in life, society only looks at women’s adherence to reproductive and marital milestones.
This blurring of religious dogma and state policy, fueled by populism, only exacerbates the situation. Bojana noted how, in recent years, the government has increasingly instrumentalized the Church. “Now they are trying to do it like the Church works for them, like it’s some organization—and it’s not supposed to be. I think it should be separated.” Like many women I spoke with, she remains spiritual but disapproves of the Church’s growing political role. “It doesn’t support feminism, and I really do not support the political part the Church has taken in the last 13 years. Back in the old days, it wasn’t like that. We really had good people ruling the Church—people who were with the people, not against them.”
Now, the Church, once seen as walking with the people, is turning its back. It played a key role in suspending the Gender Equality Act in 2024 and has recently spoken out against student protests—protests demanding safety and rights for all, following the recent deaths in Novi Sad. In aligning itself with authoritarian power and anti-gender rhetoric, the Church has abandoned its pastoral mission in favor of political allegiance.
In addition to the church, female political leaders themselves choose to stand with the government rather than with other women. Case in point, the issue of violence against women, occurring both in the home and through public institutions. In 2024, when women began speaking out about obstetric violence and poor maternity conditions in Serbian hospitals, Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski, Minister of Family Care and Demography, dismissed the claims on national television as “part of a global agenda against children being born in Serbia.” Rather than standing with women, she helped the government weaponize the issue to further polarize the country. In these moments, it becomes clear that some officials view women not as full citizens, but merely as reproductive bodies.
This is the world populism has created–where sacred institutions, the government, and the media blend into a singular propaganda machine and women are valued solely for political and reproductive purposes. Populism exacerbates polarization, and as a result, leaders attempt to appeal to both sides, creating a facade of progress while simultaneously turning back the clock on equality.
Populism is inherently a thin-centered ideology. It thrives in a society that doesn’t think or question, where we search for quick fixes, easy answers, and are blind to the fact that we are all the victims of our ignorance. But, no matter who’s in power, what laws are passed, or how loud and flashy those messages are, we have a choice. We can race through life, blindly following a predetermined path, absorbing the messages we see and hear as our own, or—we can take a minute and slow down. We can turn off our phones, shut off the tv, stop all distractions and just sit with ourselves. It is only when we all truly understand who we are, what we want and why we want it, that we can create change. In the past, it may have been enough to stop and smell the roses, but that time is long gone. We need to wake up and realize that the roses are dead.
