It doesn’t get much attention, but there’s an odd assumption buried in all of Trump’s immigration and trade talk. I mean, separate from the obvious racism.

First, he opened his campaign talking about illegal immigration, by talking about Mexico ‘sending’ people here, as if immigrants from Mexico are chose and dispatched to the US by the Mexican government, rather than being individuals with their own reasons for wanting to leave Mexico or come to the US.

In addition, he sees it as Mexico dumping their worst citizens on us, presumably retaining the good ones.

Second, when he talks about us having a trade deficit with Mexico of X billions of dollars, he thinks the GOVERNMENT OF Mexico receives the money, which they can then pay to the government of the US to pay for the wall.

I’m not surprised that he sees immigration that way, but that he sees trade that way is a bit surprising, in someone who is ostensibly a businessman.