manipulate **
pull strings
pull wires

Bush wants the story to be about whether he pulled strings.

I might pull strings and keep her for a while.

In his own way, he knew how to pull her strings.

I want to be a person by myself, and to pull my own strings.

However, I was going to try to pull the right strings.

She, who had always pulled the strings, to have found herself in this position.

This is someone who can pull strings from the inside.

We pull the strings and you don't even know it.

You were my father's best friend and I'm not above pulling strings.

How good at last to be the one pulling the strings.