Don't Tell Travolta.

Comparison:

Ok. When we talk about DOGE, I think one of the things that's not really well understood is that DOGE is like the government equivalent and, and follow me here for a second, of the late 90s, early 2000s movie Face Off. Do you know, do you know this movie? It's like a terrible Nicolas Cage, John Travolta movie where they are exchanging essentially personalities and souls under the face of another, and I use that analogy because DOGE basically went into the shell of an agency that was gutted, the United States Digital Service, which was meant as an advisory agency to assist other federal agencies with their use of the digital space and the internet, and into the US Digital Service they put DOGE, but sort of hollowed it out; so it has the face of the United States Digital Service or at least like the physical shell of it, but it has been transformed into a wholly different agency. Do I have that right?

MSNBC's Lisa Rubin grafts the core plot device of a John Woo movie, starring John Travolta and Nicholas Cage, onto the Trump administrations' move to create DOGE by transplanting it within the United States Digital Service. Her use of “gutted“ and “hollowed out“ to describe the process to NYU professor Noah Rosenbloom suggests that legally and procedurally the process may have been less than conventional for a new administration. When using a popular movie--especially one from the late '90s--as a basis for a telling comparison one, of course, runs the risk of an audience not knowing the movie. Worth the risk? Rosenbloom and Rubin also, briefly, manage to make reference to the movies When Harry Met Sally and Pirates of the Caribbean as they sought to help us understand DOGE activities and the law.

Context:

Lisa Rubin:

Ok. When we talk about DOGE, I think one of the things that's not really well understood is that DOGE is like the government equivalent and, and follow me here for a second, of the late 90s, early 2000s movie Face Off. Do you know, do you know this movie? It's like a terrible Nicolas Cage, John Travolta movie where they are exchanging essentially personalities and souls under the face of another, and I use that analogy because DOGE basically went into the shell of an agency that was gutted, the United States Digital Service, which was meant as an advisory agency to assist other federal agencies with their use of the digital space and the internet, and into the US Digital Service they put DOGE, but sort of hollowed it out; so it has the face of the United States Digital Service or at least like the physical shell of it, but it has been transformed into a wholly different agency. Do I have that right?

NYU Law Professor Noah Rosenbloom:

Yes, ok, I love it. you lost me there for a moment, but I think it's exactly right I know Nicolas Cage and DOGE don't usually go together. Well, at least Nicolas Cage did some good for the country, as i recall . . .

Lisa Rubin:

different movie, different movie . . .

Noah Rosenbloom:

But, you're absolutely right, and, and part of the reason they did that is because of the underlying legal framework.

Citation:

Rubin, Lisa. “Can They Do That?” MSNBC, YouTube, 16 April 2025. Web.

(Image design by Lee Aigue; base image Wikimedia April 2025.)