The word bromance is a well-known portmanteau of bro or brother and romance. According to the linked Wikipedia article, it means:
a close, emotionally intense, non-sexual bond between two (or more)
men. It is an exceptionally tight, affectional, homosocial male
bonding relationship that exceeds that of usual friendship, that
is distinguished by a particularly high level of emotional intimacy.
Over the last couple of weeks, I heard this word repeatedly used in the media to describe the relationship between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz before they started to engage in mud-slinging at each other and the their bromance seems to have turned sour as their fight intensifies to become the presidential candidate of the Republican Party.
The war of words between presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted
Cruz spilled onto the GOP debate stage, ending the bromance the two
men once shared.
Based on the above definition, i.e. emotionally intense bond and tight male bonding, the word bromance doesn't seem appropriate to describe the relationship as they didn't seem to have such a bond. They just pretended to be close and didn't attack each other for their political agenda.
Question: Is there any better or more appropriate word or idiom to describe relationship between two people who pretend to be close to each other for political or commercial gains knowing well their seemingly close relationship will not last long enough?
Best Answer
How about alliance of convenience?
There is an old phrase, marriage of convenience, which is defined as:
Dictionary.com
This term is often used idiomatically to describe other pragmatic partnerships, such as those between companies or even entire business sectors. For example, see this Financial Times article: "Law and Business: a marriage of convenience".
Leading on from that, I have occasionally come across an evolution of the term to alliance of convenience.
This means an alliance between two political entities that's undertaken for mutual benefit, which serves a purpose under a particular set of circumstances, but which is not founded (solely) upon a shared ideology. Consequently, it will last only as long as it grants benefit to either party.
You can witness the term in publication if you Google it, one notable example is an Atlantic.com article: Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Forge an Alliance of Convenience