It has not been a good day for Donald Trump’s efforts to keep his tax returns secret. First, Donald Trump Jr. let on: This is not about an “audit” but about stuff in the returns hurting his father.

“Because he’s got a 12,000-page tax return that would create … financial auditors out of every person in the country asking questions that would detract from (his father’s) main message,” he told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Well yes, it is distracting to reveal things the voters should know but that are not helpful to one’s campaign. In a democracy, candidates usually oblige their voters, to show they have nothing to hide. Trump is different.

Trump’s fear of creating a “distraction” gives Clinton new fodder for her ad:

Whatever is in the returns must be so bad that the pushback for not releasing them is not as damaging as their contents. Trump said in regard to his health records that he wouldn’t release the numbers if they were “bad.” So noted.

It’s not stopping with Democrats. The Hill reports:

When asked about releasing his own taxes in 2012, [House Speaker Paul] Ryan said that Trump should release his tax documents whenever the right time comes. “I did release my returns. I’ll defer to Donald Trump as to when he thinks the appropriate time to release his returns. I know he is under audit, and he has an opinion on when to release those and I’ll defer to him on that,” Ryan, the 2012 vice presidential nominee, said during his weekly press briefing.

The Center for Public Integrity is out with a poll showing “only one in four respondents consider Trump ‘honest and transparent’ about his financial, business or investment dealings. For Clinton, it’s about one in three.” It’s surprising voters give Trump credit for revealing nothing. “It’d be difficult for Clinton to be more transparent with her tax returns. It’d be difficult for Trump to be less transparent,” CPI argues. “Trump, however, still has time to make his tax returns public, ensuring that he doesn’t become the first major presidential nominee in more than 40 years to not release his or her tax returns. Advantage Hillary.”

Last week, 60 percent of respondents in a Fox News poll thought Trump is hiding something by not releasing his returns. That includes 36 percent of Republicans.

It is not clear that in and of itself this will change votes. It does, however, give Clinton and the moderators an opening to attack him at the debates and do what he most hates — suggest he’s not worth as much as he claims. Making the analogy to Trump University, Clinton may very well make the case that this is just Trump the con man trying to pull a fast one on the voters.

Ryan didn’t help Trump any, although he was vague about when the returns should be released. We would hope before the election, but don’t count on it. And don’t count on the media raising it at each and every debate and interview unless and until they switch to a “Hillary Comeback!” story (you know they will). For now, all Clinton can do is to make it part of a larger portrait of an opponent second to none in deceit, self-aggrandizement and narcissism.