One thing about this NYT story and the picture it reveals: I cannot emphasize how strong the mythic image is, among his base, of a saint-like Trump who had a perfect life and sacrificed his wealth and happiness to save the country/the children/the world.

They believe what is basically a Bizarro inversion of reality: that Trump was rich, successful, and his future was perfectly secure, but by becoming president he has exposed himself to phony investigations, frivolous lawsuits, and lost millions/billions in business opportunities

Without even having done any recon, I am sure that apart from dismissing it as "fake news", his base will ignore the earlier years and seize on the 2016 and 2017 info to show just how much he has given up. Everybody knows he was rich and successful, right?

If everybody knows he was rich and successful and yet his most recent available tax returns show a teetering, hollow paper shell of a company that's bleeding out... well, something drastic must have happened, right?

It's even possible that the whole article will be incorporated into the mythic narrative: the evil forces that control the world have been trying to destroy Donald Trump for years, for decades ,because they feared him, and 2016 was when he started fighting back.

"So you're saying this story won't change any minds and so there's no point to pushing it?" Listen, I'm not shy about saying things, and when I want to advocate a course of action, I advocate it.

It won't change *every* mind. It could change minds.

I think it's worth understanding what we're dealing with even if that information does not present a path forward in dealing with it.

Trump's base includes a notable contingent that believes he's a saintly superhero battling forces of unimaginable evil. It also includes people who believe he's a monster in human form and they love his monstrousness.

And it includes people who just love that he ticks off people who care about things that they themselves don't care about.

And because people are complicated, some people are in two or all three of these groups at once.

We can't "reach" these people. Some of them may change, but they will have to grow out of these mindsets the way people outgrow anything: gradually, and then all at once.

These people are too numerous (and dangerous) to ignore, but they aren't the whole of the GOP-leaning electorate.

However, I think their numbers are likely to grow from this news. I will explain why.

A lot of Trump's base aren't zealots. They support him because they are at a place in their life where ideologically they have to support him. Can't let the Democommunisocianarchists win, right? Party loyalty, fear, something. The "reluctant Trump voter".

Everytime an "I'll hold my nose and vote for Trump" voter encounters a point past which they can no longer hold their nose, they either flee, or they learn to love the smell.

And because their reasons for voting Trump remain the same - both the ones they have admitted and the ones they have not - and because they have compromised so much of themselves already, there is a powerful psychological inducement towards loving the smell.

So far from weakening his base... I think this news is going to harden it. I would not be surprised to see his approval rating among Republican voters rise.

It won't mean, necessarily, he loses no votes.

But the voters he does not lose are going to be that much deeply invested in him, emotionally. That much more committed.

That much more compromised.