They change the goalposts

Stuart Stevens, political consultant, was talking on the podcast All In with Chris Hayes about choices Republicans face as cracks in Trump continue to grow. He then noted that authoritarian regimes “change the goalposts”. This is a mashup of “move the goalposts” (to alter the rules of a situation to suit one’s needs to objectives) and I believe because of the context “change horses in midstream” (make major changes in an activity that has already begun).. Maybe “change the conversation”? The malaphor occurs at 15:30 in the podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/all-in-with-chris-hayes/id1314170606?i=1000550512106

A big thanks to Frank King for hearing this one and sending it in.