Specific cultural symbols, practices, or rituals within a populist regime that are supposed to serve the goals of its leader, or its dictator are for one the Cult of personality. For example Trujillo's image was always present, featured in statues, public spaces, and even the capital city was renamed after him. This turned his persona into an almost legendary or religious figure, that is supposed to embody the state and nation. Symbols such as flags, songs, and even everyday language exceed their practical significance, and are now used to align themselves with the leader's authority. Trujillo’s cult mirrored how African dictators often position themselves as cultural and national saviors.
There are also Rituals of Loyalty and Public Displays, where constant grand military parades, civic events and public celebrations of his persona, became part of everyday life. Rituals, such as renaming cities and erecting statues created a sense of the regime's omnipresence and tied the public emotionally to the leader. They also Manipulated through Gifts and Patronage. Trujillo framed state payouts as personal gifts to citizens, while in reality building more personal wealth, monopolizing industries and framing his enrichment as benefiting national development. This transformed economic dependence into personal loyalty, masking domination as kindness. The use of cultural idioms like patronage or gifts creates a transactional politics where citizens' loyalty is bought. Also Racial and National Identity is being used as a tool. Trujillo emphasized a creole national identity, casting himself as the father of a modern Dominican Republic. There is also a New Ideology that is introduced, of redefined Dominican nationalism, emphasizing racial purity and creating a shared identity that marginalizes Haitians while promising upward mobility for impoverished Dominicans. This racial coding turned ethnic tensions into tools for political control and mobilization. (Divide et impera). Also Theatrics of Violence and Control are being used. Here public displays of violence, such as surveillance, public abductions, violent purges and parades of mutilated bodies, were a deliberate use of grotesque imagery that was supposed to emphasize absolute power.
All of this, theatrical violence, monumental architecture, and elaborate ceremonies create an aura of divinity (godlike) around leaders, looking for compliance rooted in awe, fear, and cultural resonance.