If unanimous in the House (or close to unanimous), the Senate would be morally obligated to take up the issue and if it passes it that is another step. Drip, drip. Then what if SDNY unexpectedly acts quickly?

With no clue whether to vote up or down. That’s what they get for supporting a crook.

You don't suspect this is some kind of secret code coming from Trump, sort of like the Navaho Code Talkers during World War 2?

That’s Trump.

They know they've lost the "keep everything under wraps" battle, so the next step is moving on to the "pretend that there's nothing important in the files" battle.

We've already heard both Mike Johnson and now Donald Trump say that there's "nothing to hide." That's because they know that there are enough congressmembers to vote for the discharge petition. Given that there are enough votes for it to pass, there will likely be a significant number of other Republicans who also vote for it, which would be embarrassing. So instead Trump is saying, "Go ahead and vote for it," so that when the vote is unanimous he can say, "I meant to do that. In fact I told them to do it." Even though they were going to do it anyway.

This kinda closes off any further avenues to keeping the files under wraps, because a unanimous or near-unanimous vote in the House means the Senate will likely follow suit, and Trump can't very well veto it after telling people to vote to release the files.

I suppose there is still the "files can't be released because they're part of an investigation" gambit. But my guess is that now they're going to let the votes happen, pretend like they meant to do it, and then put "nothing to hide, nothing to hide, nothing to hide," on repeat across the RW mediasphere, until the cult members are conditioned to ignore anything of significance that comes out.

Whether this works might depend on what comes out and how soon. But bear in mind that this is a guy who instigated an insurrection on January 6, and was convicted on multiple fraud felonies, yet was able to turn those around politically. Even being involved in a child sex ring may not be a bridge too far for the true believers.

The maladministration will not be releasing anything embarrassing or incriminating. It will be like the JFK files.