MEXICO CITY — U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump met with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto here Wednesday afternoon, marking Trump’s first formal international trip as the Republican nominee, to a country where he is broadly despised for his vilification of illegal immigrants.
Addressing the media after the meeting alongside Peña Nieto, Trump said the two discussed trade, illegal immigration, and border security — issues where their views do not align.
“I was straighforward in presenting my view on the impact of current trade and immigration policies on the Untied States,” said Trump, who spoke second.
Trump said the two discussed his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, but, “we didn’t discuss who pays for the wall.” Trump wants Mexico to pay for it and has made it a central slogan of his rowdy U.S. political rallies. Peña Nieto has said Mexico will not do that.
Peña Nieto offered a polite and careful rebuke to many of Trump’s signature stances in his remarks. According to an interpreter, he said illegal immigration and border security is a shared challenge, but that undocumented immigration has slowed in recent years. He also praised the merits of free trade; Trump has expressed deep skepticism about sweeping trade deals.
“I shared my strong view that NAFTA has been a far greater benefit to Mexico than it has been to the United States,” said Trump.
Trump said the meeting was “tremendous” and lasted more than an hour.
The two stood at side-by-side podiums with a Mexican flag in the background. There was no U.S. flag.
Trump and Peña Nieto met at Los Pinos, the official presidential residence and office, ahead of a major immigration speech Trump plans to deliver in Phoenix.
American reporters who regularly cover Trump expressed concerns on social media about his decision not to bring his usual traveling press corps with him.
Trump flew by helicopter to Los Pinos for his meeting, according to Mexican media. He did not appear in front of journalists when he arrived at the presidential palace.
There was no U.S. flag.
Trump and Peña Nieto met at Los Pinos, the official presidential residence and office, ahead of a major immigration speech Trump plans to deliver in Phoenix.
American reporters who regularly cover Trump expressed concerns on social media about his decision not to bring his usual traveling press corps with him.
Trump flew by helicopter to Los Pinos for his meeting, according to Mexican media. He did not appear in front of journalists when he arrived at the presidential palace.
Trump was joined by former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) during the meeting, according to a person familiar with the gathering, who was granted anonymity to describe the closed-door talks.
Peña Nieto has sharply condemned Trump for repeatedly declaring that Mexico is sending predatory killers and rapists into America, but he is now the target of condemnation at home for extending an invitation to Trump last Friday. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton also received an invitation but has not arranged a meeting yet.
Speaking at the American Legion convention in Cincinnati ahead of the meeting, Clinton went after Trump, saying coalition building and leadership will take more than a “photo-op.”
“It certainly takes more than trying to make up for a year of insults and insinuations by dropping in on our neighbors for a few hours and then flying home again. That is not how it works,” she said without naming her rival.
State Department Spokesman John Kirby said that the only contact between the Trump campaign and the Obama administration was with the Secret Service regarding security for the trip. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico “was not asked to provide any support or briefings for the visit,” Kirby said. “There’s no expectation that our ambassador or any embassy personnel are going to be participating in the visit in any way.”
It is not unusual for presidential candidates and nominees to travel abroad. The State Department offers only security assistance and, if requested, general briefings on major issues of interest and U.S. policy.
Former president Vicente Fox, an outspoken Trump critic, said on Mexican television that the visit would be an opportunity for Trump to mock Peña Nieto on his home turf. Fox told Milenio TV that Trump is not welcome and that “he has offended us, he has deceived us, he has discriminated against us.”
“Former President Vicente Fox, who is railing against my visit to Mexico today, also invited me when he apologized for using the ‘f bomb,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning.
Fox responded: “@realDonaldTrump, I invited you to come and apologize to all Mexicans. Stop lying! Mexico is not yours to play with, show some respect.”
Discussions of the meeting appear to have been closely held. Several Mexican officials and diplomats contacted Tuesday had no notion that Trump had even been invited, let alone planned to visit the next day.
When The Washington Post first reported on consideration of the trip Tuesday night, Mexico’s foreign minister, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, was in Milwaukee for the opening of a new Mexican consulate. Members of her staff said they were unaware of a possible Trump visit.
Trump’s trip to Mexico will give U.S. voters their first glimpse of how he carries himself in a high-level meeting with a foreign leader. Trump visited Scotland earlier this year before he was the GOP nominee in a trip characterized as personal, though he did praise Britain’s vote to exit the European Union in remarks to reporters.
Trump spent Wednesday morning in California at a home he owns in Beverly Hills and is scheduled to deliver his immigration speech in the evening at the Phoenix Convention Center.
The speech will come after Trump has wavered for weeks on whether he will continue to hold his hard-line positions on the central and incendiary issue of his campaign, in particular his call to deport an estimated 11 million immigrants who are living in the United States illegally.
In addition to vows of mass deportations, Trump has repeatedly promised to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and force Mexico to pay for it. Peña Nieto and other Mexican leaders have dismissed the idea as preposterous.
“There is no way that Mexico can pay [for] a wall like that,” Peña Nieto
said in a July interview on CNN, adding that he did not agree with Trump’s frequent characterization of illegal immigrants from Mexico as rapists and killers.
Questions about what would become of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants if Trump is elected have gone largely unanswered by the candidate and his team in recent days. The campaign has suggested that Wednesday’s speech will address those questions and concerns.
“I expect the speech to be a refinement of the goals he’s always stated,” said Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a Trump supporter. Cramer said that he would like to see Trump lay out a “chronology” of actions that he would try to achieve. The congressman said he is open to a plan that would afford illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes some form of legal status.
Trump has offered glimpses of his policy priorities even as he has skirted questions about their implementation. He remains publicly committed to building the border wall, has extolled the need to crack down on those who overstay their visas and has proposed expanding the E-Verify program, used by employers to determine whether an immigrant is legally able to work in the country.
The campaign has also said Trump would prioritize the deportation of criminals, a policy that the Obama administration has pursued.
Mark Krikorian, a hard-line opponent of illegal immigration, said in an interview that he has been troubled by Trump’s recent language because it has echoed viewpoints championed by reform advocates such as former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“Anything that seems to suggest the kind of guarantee of an amnesty would, I think, as a policy matter be a bad idea — and as a political matter it would be a bad idea,” Krikorian said.
According to a study by the Migration Policy Institute, an estimated 690,000 undocumented immigrants have significant criminal histories — felony convictions or serious misdemeanors — that make them top priorities for deportation under current administration policy. The number of people prioritized for deportation would grow to about 5.5 million if visa overstays were included, according to some data, although those estimates are not considered very reliable.
Costa and Sullivan reported from Washington. Karen DeYoung and Jose A. DelReal in Washington and Anne Gearan in Cincinnati contributed to this story.
