Esther's Army: The Women Who Make Up MAGA (Half the Answer #100, with Katie Gaddini)

Who are they?

Caitlin M. Green, Trent R. Nelson, Katie Gaddini Aug 30, 2026

Esther's Army: The Women Who Make Up MAGA (Half the Answer #100, with Katie Gaddini)

Who are the women supporting the rise of the far right in the United States? Are they brainwashed? Confused? Under coercive control? Dr. Katie Gaddini presents her findings after interviewing politically active right-wing women across the country and explains that there can be several distinct classifications of such women, who all are different, complex, and active participants in their political movement.

Half the Answer can be heard on Spotify, on Apple, on YouTube, on Amazon, and elsewhere via its RSS feed.

Resources

https://katiegaddini.com

"Esther's Army: The Christian Women Who Power the American Right" https://bookshop.org/a/115699/9781324123767

https://slate.com/culture/2026/07/conservative-women-right-wing-republican-christian-evangelical-trump-politics-maga.html

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/katie-gaddini/esthers-army/

podcast: blessed & stressed https://katiegaddini.com/podcasts

https://katiegaddini.substack.com

Published in: Half the Answer, Podcast

Authors

Caitlin Green is a linguist specializing in Discourse Studies and Pragmatics. She lives in California with her husband, two daughters, and a very small black cat.

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Trent R. Nelson is a poet, historian, and philosopher, as well as a political and socioeconomic analyst. He is the managing editor for MWF Springfield and a contributing editor with Liberal Currents.

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Dr. Katie Gaddini is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Social Research Institute, University College London (UCL).

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