Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday told Donald Trump that Mexico would not pay for the Republican presidential candidate’s proposed wall along the Mexico-U.S. border, contradicting Trump’s earlier assertion they didn’t discuss payment. “Cooperation toward achieving this shared objective – and it will be shared – of safety for all citizens is paramount to both the United States and to Mexico”.
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In a sudden press event which dodged the actual American press, Donald Trump flew off in his private jet to attend a secret meeting with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto.
“No one wins in either country when human smugglers and drug traffickers prey on people, when cartels commit acts of violence”, Trump said.
“We don’t like him”. As Mexico’s president stressed cooperation between the USA and Mexico, Trump stood there. Trump and Pena Nieto, who has compared the NY billionaire to Adolf Hitler, addressed reporters from adjacent podiums flanked by a Mexican flag.
But he noted that differences remain between the two countries over how to manage trade relationships between them, and who would fund Trump’s proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. “We reject his visit”, Mr Fox told CNN.
He acknowledged, however, that they did not discuss who will pay for the wall, despite Trump persistently stating throughout his campaign that Mexico will foot the bill for the highly controversial project. “Mexican nationals in the United States are honest people, working people”, he said. He is under pressure to clarify just where he stands in a speech that’s been rescheduled several times as he and his staff has sent varied and conflicting messages on the issue. Click through the gallery to see photos and read stories about Trump’s visit to Mexico, including protests that happened while he was there.
Pena Nieto suggested there was room to improve the trade deal, which Trump described as unfair to American workers.
The newspaper El Universal wrote in an editorial that Trump “caught Mexican diplomats off guard” by accepting the invitation.
He also invited Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, but her campaign has not yet responded.
He has promised, if elected, to deport millions of immigrants who are in the United States illegally, force Mexico to build a wall to secure the almost 2,000-mile border and renegotiate the NAFTA trade agreement to make it more favorable to the United States.
He listed five major goals that the USA and Mexico must tackle together, including ending illegal immigration, dismantling drug cartels, and “keeping manufacturing wealth in our hemisphere”.
Hispanic leaders and Republicans mindful of the party’s need to draw in Hispanics to remain competitive in years to come have stressed the need for Trump to move beyond his deportation policy proposal and begin addressing other ways to deal with the undocumented population. “But then he also respects it’s a complex issue”, Conway said in an interview with MSNBC.
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Pena Nieto made his invitation to both Trump and Clinton, who met with him in Mexico in 2014.
