Faustian bargain

The BBC story concludes by highlighting the desperation that drove the Trumpists in that community to make a Faustian bargain with their “savior”:

If we regard Matt’s promise to Mill to play to the lowest common denominator as a Faustian bargain, it’s not one that seems to have any long-term consequences, only scrambling in the moment to keep his job and a modicum of self-respect.

The more important unanswered questions, however, may concern exactly what Faustian bargain Europe’s far right is making in aligning with Musk, and whether the differences between his techno-libertarianism and Bannon’s retro-macho, supposed working-class populism are purely superficial or more fundamental.

They made a Faustian bargain together.

“The Apprentice,” which is labeled as inspired by true events, portrays Trump’s dealings with Cohn as a Faustian bargain that guided his rise as a businessman and, later, as a politician.