Nothing will take him down in the eyes of his supporters, not unless he himself abandons them. They will pass this off as sound Presidential wisdom not to incite panic and conveniently ignore him calling it a hoax the whole way through. His whole term has been revisionist history, denying what he has clearly already said, and re-framing his arguments to shift the story and ignore the inconsistency. The only time he didn’t try to deny what he said or shift the story to a different point was the whole Access Hollywood “grab ‘em by the kitty” comment, and he shrugged it off as locker room talk which his base bought hook line and sinker.
I said earlier if he is clearly on the way out after the election he will kick up a fuss and let his supporters lead a civil war, but he will slip out the back door while everyone is distracted and go to another country where they don’t have extradition, knowing that he faces criminal prosecution in New York and possibly Federally as well. He has made his bed with Russia and Saudi Arabia so he has a couple of safe havens, and like Lionel Langley in the Simpsons monorail episode, he will disappear with the cash and not look back, like every con artist does. Only then will his rubes see that they were duped. Otherwise they will accept every false persecution claim he throws up because he has convinced them that the media is corrupt - sadly his most lasting achievement as President.
And in 5-10 years we will get a book along the lines of Mulroney’s “On the Take” expose which lays bare the full extent of the corruption after the fact and nothing will be done about it other than a public flogging in the court of public opinion.