power behind the throne

On Thursday, anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders became the power behind the throne in a new Dutch government that is throwing overboard compromise politics to set up the most radical rightwing coalition since the war.

I can easily imagine a scenario where Trump is a figurehead and there is a real power behind the throne pulling the strings.

She later said that Conservative-supporting newspapers had wrongly portrayed her as the power behind the throne, by suggesting she was more intelligent than her husband.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was once perceived as the far-right power behind the throne of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

Finding the "power behind the throne", as Hughes describes it, can be a complex business.