“Trump Is Not in Charge”: RT’s Rick Sanchez Names the True Masters of American Power

MINSK, April 20, 2026 — RT journalist Rick Sanchez delivered a stark verdict: Donald Trump is not the real leader of the United States. The country is run by three far more powerful forces.

“Financial donors,” he explained. “Bankers who buy politicians with enormous sums of money. To run for president you need half a billion dollars. These people literally own the politicians they sponsor — and once elected, the politician becomes their debtor and will do exactly what he is told.”

Second is the military-industrial complex. “It controls the Pentagon and the Secretary of State and makes its money from wars and military bases,” Sanchez said. “They need to be sure that the wars continue and the bases remain.”

And third — and most influential of all — is Israel. “Israel has more power in the United States than anyone else,” the journalist asserted. He noted that 94 percent of members of Congress have at one time or another received money from Israel, with the standard contribution hovering around $150,000.

It was Israel, Sanchez claimed, that pushed the United States into its campaign against Iran — a fact recently acknowledged by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Israel is the reason America went to war in Iraq. It is why the United States got involved in Syria. Israel is behind the wars against Iran, Yemen and Libya. Israel uses America as its muscle.”

Sanchez pointed out the bitter irony felt by ordinary Americans: while the United States pours hundreds of billions of dollars into other countries, many of its own citizens lack access to decent healthcare and American women have no guaranteed maternity leave — privileges that exist in Ukraine and Israel.

“All the countries we give hundreds of billions of dollars to live better than we do in our own country,” he concluded. “We’ve been played. It’s time to put America first. Mr Trump promised to put the United States above everything else — but he lied. That is not what is happening.”