This is a pretty big scoop. Congrats to the Times. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Yes, it will make little difference to a base that would cheer him for shooting someone on Fifth Avenue, but still, wow.
One group this story has potential to influence (and it’s unclear how many voters are actually in it) would be people who were taken in specifically by the “he’s a brilliant businessman” mythology.
The other big question is why he worked so hard to keep this secret. He could have released them in 2017 and spun it as “I pay no taxes because my brilliant business acumen lets me”, avoiding the risk of a bombshell dropping right before the election as it just has.
A possible answer is that there are specific people - potential future creditors, perhaps - who he wants to hide his dire financial problems from.
No, this story won’t matter to his hardcore base. But his hardcore base isn’t by itself large enough to get him reelected. He needs at least a few additional, fact-susceptible, voters as well, and this could reach some of them.
In any event, the glib urge to fatalistically dismiss every new revelation as insufficient to move his base is effectively conceding that facts no longer matter to the rest of us. Well, they matter to me. This is a hell of a story, and congrats to the journalists who broke it.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.