tail wagging the dog

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First used in the 1858 play Our American Cousin. The shortened form with the political sense was popularized by the film Wag the Dog (1997).

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tail wagging the dog

1. (idiomatic) A minor or secondary part of something controlling or dominating the whole or the main part.
   • 1987 May 9, Gordon Gottlieb, Richard Burns, Sue Hyde, “Homocrats and Liberationists: Burns and Hyde Consider the Community's Institutions”, in Gay Community News, page 8:

     This is classic for all non-profit agencies: the tail wags the dog. If you have a foundation willing to fund a particular kind of program, then an organization will write that kind of grant. Suddenly, you're doing a program to where the bucks are. Maybe that's not within the original mission of the mission.

2. When something powerful or important is being controlled by something that is less powerful or important.
3. (idiomatic, politics) To divert negative political attention by use of a military operation.

• wag the dog

• put the cart before the horse