Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

We all know that Donald Trump lies all the time about almost everything. But just for fun, it can be interesting to imagine he is telling the truth. Trump keeps repeating the claim that millions, maybe even tens of millions, of undocumented immigrants are brought into the country to cast votes for Democratic candidates. His incredibly rich friend — and occasional sidekick — Elon Musk has made the same claim.

It’s worth sitting back and thinking about this one for a moment. According to the Trump-Musk hypothesis, there is a network, presumably funded by rich Democrats (we know what the anti-Semites are thinking), that goes to countries like Haiti, Venezuela, Somalia and elsewhere and brings back millions — or even tens of millions — of people and pays them to vote Democratic in elections.

Let’s start by asking what this network would have to look like. If it brought back, say 5-10 million immigrants, and let’s say the transporters averaged 100 each, that would mean that 50,000-100,000 people worked in this huge network. At the high end that would be two and a half times as many people as are employed in the coal mining industry.

So, there is this massive industry........

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