“He thinks about what is going to play politically well for him. Bankruptcy doesn’t play well for him, but having her try to take his properties might.” While Trump may actually be right about that—it’s not hard to imagine him convincing his supporters that he’s the unjust victim of government tyranny, claiming America has devolved into a communist hellhole, and telling people they’ll be next—he is, of course, no stranger to bankruptcy protection.
I disagree that he thinks bankruptcy doesn't play well for him. He'll probably play the victim card for the ruling and try to spin bankruptcy as some kind of genius financial 'turning-of-the-tables'. He knows he can spin it any way he wants to his base but is too narcissistic to acknowledge anyone else could see through it.
I mean, that is the only play he could make, of course, but his image of a big, strong, brilliant business billionaire will be very difficult to maintain while he is sitting in the poorhouse. He will be stripped of his entire identity of anything other than a big fat, drooling, dumb ass crybaby. I don’t know that his supporters will be very interested in voting for that anymore.
That might work if they had a chance to see him through any other lens than their self-imposed media bubble.
Trump's public persona in those spaces never bore any resemblance to reality and they'll keep curating his messianic image until well after he's in the ground.