take your pick, appearances can be deceiving :

http://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/

some years ago it wasn't barack obama, it was a shared spot between Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel (as written by Time, the american magazine)

the image of an american president is severely distorted by hollywood movies (a bit like hackers who crack 1024 bit encryption on the fly because they have 8 screens in front of them)

True, its the supreme commander (commander-in-chief? i'm not down with the ranking terminology) , true, the americans probably have the most powerful or let's say technologically advanced military in the world.

This didn't stop IS from rising out of nothing up to controlling over 100thousand square kilometres just with looted gear and kitchen utensils (so to speak , and a whole lot of quite advanced psychology actually) it didn't stop Osama bin laden from hiding under the nose of the whole world for ten years either. Hell, i remember pakistani ambassadors coming to europe asking for money to fight terrorism and leave with tens of millions, maybe a hundred or more euros after they did, while all the time he was hiding in their backyard.

influence works on many levels, its not just about the ability to exert force , the chinese have been on the rise for quite a while now, russia hasnt budged an inch

india doesnt even make noise globally and there's like a billion people there too, but who knows the name of the boss from india ?

personally, i think the most powerful people in total globally , are people whos name you'll never hear. What's the name of putins daughter ? his wife ?

just an example

and with this i will conclude the daylight for today

https://steemit.com/introduction/@tyrnannoght/rudyardcatling-signature-post-20180812