Pulling Strings; Pushing Buttons

"Pulling strings" is an idiom that means to use your influence or connections to get something you want, often in a secret way.

• The idiom comes from puppetry, where a puppeteer pulls strings to make a puppet move.
• "Pulling strings" can also mean to control someone or something.
• It can be used to describe using your influence unfairly.

"Pushing someone's buttons" is an informal idiom that means to do or say something to upset or annoy someone.
Sometimes I think of the currently sh*t-show presidency and wonder who is pulling the strings and who is pushing our buttons. It is frightening that something as sacred as the right to cast one's vote has been turned inro a circus. We must live in a world that wants to be in chaos... or simply that wants to live in the fantasy television program AMERICA'S GOT STUPID.