Trigger warning!

I first came up with the idea a week or so after Trump's inauguration in January of 2017. At the time, it seemed like his appointees' strange actions were all his controlled tactics. However, as the political storm calmed in the coming months, I found that Trump himself seemed to be very influenced by outside forces as well. I have included my current interpretation of this piece at the end.

Very early sketches [TBD]:

Small revisions:

Although this is definitely a political piece, I do not consider it to be biased. If there is anything I learned from the first 6 months of the President's inauguration, it is the media's power to distort our perception.  The cameras near the back of the audience are clearly marked with influential news networks, which take the "puppet show" in and broadcast it to the public; if there is one thing I have noticed about the news, even if he has little to do with the matter, Trump is often included in headlines, which is misleading and gives this perception that he controls every facet of the government. In reality, foreign powers and other figures of power also play a large part in influencing his agenda.

Look again. Is the puppeteer a puppet himself?