🧩 BND Motif Index · M766
Dead weight president
An unpopular president is said to drag his party's candidates down, his numbers bleeding into every race on the ticket.
🎭 Archetypes🗂️ Politician Archetypes🗂️ Horserace
- 11claims filed under it
- 9left shows it came up on
- 2center shows it came up on
- 3right shows it came up on
- 3claims retold online
⚠️ A story people tell, not a claim that it's true.
A motif is the shape of a story as its tellers tell it, named the way a folklorist names a tale type, so the same story told about other people, by the other side or in another year lands in the same place. Some of the claims below are true, many are false. Arguing against a story is often a story of its own, its answer (Voter fraud is answered by Voter suppression, Lawfare by No one is above the law), and we file it there; where no answer has a motif yet, the arguments against a story sit with its tellings.
🪜 Its family
what it rests on, what rests on it, and the motifs that answer it
🔗 goes with: 🧩 Electability 🧩 Enthusiasm gap 🧩 Losing the base 🧩 Midterm curse 🧩 Referendum on the president
🎙️ Who it came up with
the shows we follow where its claims came up, by the show's lean
🫏 left 9
🎙️ David Pakman Show (podcast) 🎙️ Hacks on Tap 🎙️ Pod Save America 🎙️ The Adam Mockler Show 🎙️ The Bulwark Podcast 🎙️ The Kyle Kulinski Show 🎙️ The MeidasTouch Podcast 🎙️ The Young Turks (podcast) 🎙️ Today, Explained
⚖️ center 2
"Came up on" means one of its claims was heard on the show: told, reported or argued against. We don't yet mark which. Show leans are our own grouping of the shows we transcribe.
📰 In the news
the stories its claims were told about, the most told first (matched by our tools, so a link can be wrong)
- 📰 Trump approval rating hits record low in new polls ahead of midterms 2026-10-19 to 2026-10-23
🧶 Its claims
what's been told in this shape, newest first, in our words, with where each was heard
- 2026-10-27 “Donald Trump is causing harm to the GOP and may attempt to rig the midterm elections.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-26 “Trump's recent public performances are hurting Republican candidates more than helping them.”
🎙️ The Adam Mockler Show 🎙️ Pod Save America 🎙️ The MeidasTouch Podcast 🎙️ The Bulwark Podcast 🎙️ David Pakman Show (podcast) - 2026-10-25 “Trump's presence in battleground states may not help Republican candidates who need to project independence.”
🎙️ Fox News Rundown 🎙️ Morning Wire - 2026-10-24 “Susan Collins' tendency to vote with Donald Trump will kill her in this election.” 🗳️ voters in The Focus Group
- 2026-10-23 “Trump's low approval rating is negatively impacting Republican candidates in midterm elections.”
🎙️ The Young Turks (podcast) 🎙️ The Adam Mockler Show 🎙️ David Pakman Show (podcast) - 2026-10-22 “Mike Rogers is contending with the unpopularity of Donald Trump.”
🎙️ Bannon's War Room - 2026-10-21 “President Trump's job approval rating has fallen to a record low.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-09 “The Republican Party is currently in a very weak position.”
🎙️ The Kyle Kulinski Show 🎙️ The Adam Mockler Show - 2026-10-07 “Republican candidates in competitive races are distancing themselves from Trump.”
🎙️ Today, Explained 🎙️ David Pakman Show (podcast) 🎙️ The Kyle Kulinski Show 🎙️ Politico Playbook 🎙️ Hacks on Tap - 2026-10-05 “The midterm convention held by Trump in Dallas was detrimental to Ken Paxton's political standing.”
🎙️ Politico Playbook 🎙️ David Pakman Show (podcast) 🎙️ The Intelligence (Economist) - 2026-10-05 “Trump's appearance in Ohio highlights the GOP's unpopularity due to voter dissatisfaction with his performance.” 🧶 people online
M766 · first seen 2026-10-10 · last 2026-10-27 · what this is · how the index works