Jason Russell of the Washington Examiner wonders where Donald Trump turns for ideas on issues of public policy.

When Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, many conservatives seemed to endorse him on the belief that he was malleable and over time would embrace conservative positions, at least on their issue of choice. Months later, it now seems like this has succeeded on some issues but failed on others.

Immigration and trade are two issues where Trump seems to have his own ideas going into the campaign.

When he sees companies inverting and outsourcing, he assumes trade deals are to blame. When he sees stories of illegal immigrants committing crimes, he decides a wall must be built in an attempt to keep them all out. Perhaps he would take specific policy proposals from think-tanks if elected, but his overarching beliefs on immigration and trade seem to come from the news he’s seen.

But when he’s asked to get into the nuts and bolts of other issues, it seems like Trump is generally borrowing from conservative think tanks or advisers. …

… Trump famously said he gets military advice from “the [TV] shows.” But at least when it comes to specifics, he seems to be borrowing from the conservative Heritage Foundation. …

… When Trump released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court nominees earlier this year, he wasn’t shy about saying the Federalist Society influenced him. “We’re going to have great judges, conservative, all picked by Federalist Society,” he said in June. He also mentioned that Heritage was an influence.

Last week, Trump proposed a $20 billion federal school choice program that would allow children living in poverty to use federal funding at the private or public school of their choice. States would choose if they want to receive a block grant to participate and could even use state dollars to supplement the small federal funding.

The idea is quite similar to Title I portability, the idea that federal funding for low-income students should be allowed to follow students to the school of their choice. … Title I portability also has support from Heritage.