butter up

A UK attempt to butter up the French leader, perhaps?

Almost every coach or general manager butters up the people who are signing his paychecks.

Instead, they were hearing Silver butter up every Democratic club in the county.

The con works like this: Victims are buttered up by the scammer for weeks and even months to gain the victim’s trust.

Electric and gas utilities have used money collected from customers to lobby lawmakers, butter up regulators, and slow the shift to clean energy.