Speaking after a meeting with the Mexican president on Wednesday, the Republican presidential candidate said building a wall would start on day one of his presidency.
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President Enrique Pena Nieto’s decision to meet with possibly Mexico’s most-disliked man is turning into a public relations disaster for him, with social media posters and politicians calling it a national humiliation likely to lower the president’s already historically low popularity ratings. But he said they did not discuss who would pay for it, saving it for another meeting – which, apparently, Peña Nieto felt the need to contradict. It’s a defining issue for Trump, but one on which he has appeared to waiver.
Yet the Republican presidential nominee failed to outline what he would do with those who have not committed crimes beyond their immigration offenses – a sharp retreat after promises during his primary campaign to create a “deportation force” to remove the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally.
In meetings recently with Hispanic supporters, Trump had suggested he could be open to allowing some people living in the country illegally to stay.
“We have to listen to the concerns that working people, our forgotten working people, have over the record pace of immigration and its impact on their jobs, wages, housing, schools, tax bills and general living conditions”, Trump said.
“To return home and to apply for reentry like everyone else”.
“(T) he point that Mr. Trump has made again and again is that you don’t get amnesty and you don’t get legalization since you broke the law to be here in the first place.
Pena Nieto did say that Mexicans felt “aggrieved” and had disagreements with Trump, but most felt that it was not enough.
But on the eve of the speech, Trump’s campaign added a new wrinkle with news that he would be paying a surprise visit to Mexico City in the hours before the speech. It seemed to contradict Trump’s statement that payment wasn’t discussed, but the president’s office said only that Pena Nieto made his statement and the topic was dropped.
“Yes, we addressed the issue of the wall (at the meeting), I was very clear and emphatic that Mexico would not pay for such a wall”, Mr Pena Neto said.
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said Trump was trying to boost his sagging campaign.
Without providing any specifics, Trump tweeted that he had a “great trip to Mexico” and spoke with “wonderful leadership and high quality people”.
Trump is trailing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in opinion polls for the November 8 election. The Washington Post first reported Tuesday that Trump was considering making the trip to Mexico. The candidate is deeply unpopular in Mexico due in large part to his deriding the country as a source of rapists and criminals as he kicked off his campaign.
On Mexican soil for the first time as the Republican presidential nominee, a firm but measured Donald Trump defended the right of the United States to build a massive border wall along its southern flank, standing up for the centerpiece of his immigration plan in a country where he is widely despised.
Trump’s short stop in Mexico would mark his second visit to a foreign country during his campaign. “What can this meeting bring us except surrealism in all its splendor?” Several Republican foreign policy experts have also warned that Trump is unprepared for the numerous worldwide issues that land on a president’s desk.
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Clinton’s campaign has urged voters to not “be fooled” by what it calls Trump’s attempts to disguise his immigration policies.
