They take a mundane piece of paper, print a picture on it, and it's imbued with metaphysical power that the poor would kill and die to obtain.

And they don't even have to print it to make more! They can just lend and borrow it to create more money out of thin air! That's how the 2008 financial crisis happened. Too much magic mucking with the money.

They buy newspapers and TV stations so they can rewrite the reality that the people believe in. Create a mirage of nukes in Iran through rhetoric. Illusion magic.

They trap your mind in a prison, and they have more than one prison for different kinds of people. Some of the prisons look like you're working against them, but it just advances their agenda further.

Not to mention the Pope. He's got so much magical power over people. But the new kid on the block to challenge Christianity is the worship of money. Trump knows it, he's made himself a religion.