If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And if bigotry is your favorite tool, every problem looks like the fault of immigrants.

And so there President Donald Trump was, in Manchester, N.H., on Monday afternoon, laying the blame for the opioid crisis gripping this country on the evil hordes streaming across the Mexican border — and our state line.

Tough-guy Trump called for drug dealers to be executed, which isn’t likely to fly. He spoke longingly of countries where those who supply drugs are put to death: “Take a look at some of these countries where they don’t play games: They don’t have a drug problem,’’ claimed the president, who has expressed admiration for Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines strongman whose own war on drugs features extrajudicial killings. For the umpteenth time, he called for a wall on the Mexican border, and decried sanctuary cities, singling out Boston and Lawrence, both of them — no coincidence — majority minority cities.

There was as much red meat here as at any Trump campaign rally, and many in that room ate it up. Never mind that the line between dealer and user is often blurry; or that we already tried cracking down on drug dealers with the failed War on Drugs, which packed our prisons — with mostly black and brown men — and did nothing to stop users multiplying; or that most drugs come in through legal border crossings.

Just like that, the president took a rolling tragedy in this country, one that killed 64,000 people last year, and bent it to his hateful world view. In so doing — and not for the first time — he shot his own administration in the foot.

Because a bunch of the people who are trying to help his administration tackle this crisis have done some excellent work finding real solutions. Among them are Governor Charlie Baker and former Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy, both of whom sat on a bipartisan commission to recommend ways to stanch the overdose epidemic. The commission’s recommendations could make a real difference, including providing better access to medication-assisted treatment, making sure health insurance covers that treatment, expanding drug courts, and setting better controls on opioid prescriptions.

Some of their recommendations made it into the final plan the president introduced on Monday, though you’d hardly know that from Trump’s performance. Baker and Kennedy are both frustrated at that.

“Look, we put a lot of time and work into that report,’’ Baker said Wednesday. “So, yes, I’m frustrated about the fact that that gets lost in a conversation about a variety of issues that are not anywhere near as meaningful solutions as prevention, education, treatment, and recovery.’’

Kennedy called Trump’s comments “an enormous missed opportunity.’’

“This is a medical challenge, not a moral challenge,’’ he said. “People have a chemistry issue, not a character issue, and our health care system needs to reflect that. But the death penalty became the headline.’’

If Trump wants to get tough, Kennedy said, let him get tough on health insurers, who still don’t cover addiction treatment as well as they cover treatment for other illnesses, despite a federal law compelling them to do so. Or perhaps he could lean on China and Mexico to shut down labs in their countries producing lethal fentanyl, he said.

“You’re not going to solve an epidemic by executing a few drug dealers,’’ Kennedy said. “That is patently absurd. That isn’t going to bring anyone back.’’

This should have been a win for Trump, touting the smart work of a bipartisan group of people, and recommendations both parties can get behind in Congress. Instead, he chose to deepen divisions by resorting to his worn old bag of tricks.

Democrats and Republicans must work together if we’re to make any headway. Big money — $100 billion, Kennedy reckons — will be required to make a dent in the crisis, much more than either the president or Congress are talking about now.

But as the president well knows, tough talk is cheaper than actual solutions. And Trump talk is cheapest of all.

Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham can be reached at yvonne.abraham@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @GlobeAbraham.