U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stated that he will travel to Mexico on Wednesday to meet its president, only hours before delivering a highly anticipated speech on how he will manage illegal immigration.
Advertisement
Pena Nieto extended an invitation last Friday to Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Trump will also meet with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto today.
“I accepted the invitation of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and look forward to meeting him tomorrow”, wrote the Republican candidate for the White House on the social network late Tuesday evening.
After the meeting, Trump was scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. MST (0100 GMT on Thursday) in Phoenix, Arizona, a state at the heart of the debate over the porous USA border with Mexico.
Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri said: “What ultimately matters is what Donald Trump says to voters in Arizona, not Mexico, and whether he remains committed to the splitting up of families and deportation of millions”.
Pence said that Trump and Pena Nieto are expected to discuss the logistics of Trump’s proposed border wall – something Trump insists Mexico will pay for, despite Pena Nieto’s condemnation of the plan.
The Mexican government, which has bristled at Trump’s threats to wall off Mexico and tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement, also confirmed the meeting in a tweet, saying Trump had agreed to meet Pena Nieto in private.
Fox has been one of Trump’s most frequent critics throughout the year, and the two have engaged in spats following Fox’s criticism.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to thousands at a political rally at the Phoenix Convention Center on July 11, 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Trump’s jaunt to Mexico will only heighten the focus on immigration in the 2016 race, but also test his temperament on a global stage.
Clinton’s campaign has urged voters to not “be fooled” by what it calls Trump’s attempts to disguise his immigration policies.
But in meetings recently with Hispanic supporters, Trump has suggested he could be open to changing the hardline approach he outlined during the GOP primaries. The speech was originally supposed to be delivered last week but was postponed until today.
Advertisement
In the days since, Trump and his staff have broadcast varied and conflicting messages – though on Wednesday Conway, appeared to make clear that Trump had decided against allowing immigrants in the USA illegally to stay. “We Mexicans expect nothing less than an apology for calling us ‘criminals and rapists'”.
