GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump traveled to Mexico and privately met with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto for over an hour Wednesday and had a conversation that both described as, “open, honest.”
Peña Nieto made it clear in the beginning of the press conference after their meeting that he and the GOP nominee, “are not in agreement on all topics.” The Mexican president had invited both the Democratic presidential nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as Trump. The GOP nominee’s campaign announced Tuesday that they had accepted the Mexican leader’s offer to talk at Mexico’s presidential residence, Los Pinos.
The embattled Mexican leader, who is suffering from low approval ratings due to multiple scandals, currently at 23 percent, took a political gamble by inviting the GOP nominee, who is widely disliked in the Latin American country. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox, who is known for having said in February that he was, “not going to pay for that fucking wall,” greatly criticized the incumbent president’s invitation to Trump. Fox said Wednesday that Trump, “is not welcome in Mexico.” The former Mexican leader went on to say of Peña Nieto that, “if he’s gone soft on Trump, it will hurt him greatly. He will even be considered like a traitor because we don’t accept to be offended.”
In their joint press conference, Peña Nieto made it clear to Trump and the media that he will, “protect Mexicans wherever they may be, that is my responsibility and I will continue to do that intends to defend all Mexicans as the president of his country, including those in the United States.”
Trump’s tone in the press conference was mild-mannered as he read off of a printed speech at his podium, in comparison to the off the cuff statements he has made at many campaign rallies. At times over the course of the campaign, Trump has gotten attendees to shout “Mexico!” after asking them who will pay for a US-Mexico border wall.
The GOP candidate addressed the topic of his proposal for a border wall, saying, “we did discuss the wall, we didn’t discuss payment of the wall.” Trump said that it was, “a great honor to be invited by you, Mr. President.”
Trump laid out his vision for U.S.-Mexico relations, specifically five points that he believed the two countries had in common: stopping illegal immigration, ensuring the U.S.-Mexico border is safe and could have a wall, defeating drug cartels, a desire to reform the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and making sure manufacturing jobs do not leave the Western Hemisphere.
The New York businessman will give a speech later Wednesday in Phoenix where he will lay out the specifics of his policy for immigration reform. Trump’s immigration policy speech comes in the wake of a week of statements by himself and surrogates that left it unclear if he still wanted to deport the approximately 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. as he had promised during the GOP primary.
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