Or perhaps Trump is looking for a confrontational moment that will remind blue collar whites how tough he is. What’s unclear is whether Trump’s own advisers know what the purpose of this visit is supposed to be. The Post account includes this intriguing bit of reporting:

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Trump’s newly installed campaign chief executive, Stephen K. Bannon, played a key role in devising the Wednesday stop while Trump met Sunday with his aides and family at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., according to two people who have been briefed on the campaign’s deliberations. Bannon, who previously headed the conservative website Breitbart News, made the case to the group that Trump must underscore his populist immigration views in the final weeks of the general-election campaign, perhaps with an audacious gesture….Bannon said it offered Trump an opening to make headlines and showcase himself as a statesman who could deal directly with Mexico. Trump was intrigued by Bannon’s proposal and agreed, but not all aides and allies were as enthusiastic, the people said.

So either expect “statesmanlike” Trump or “audacious” and “populist” Trump. It’s not unreasonable to say the odds are on the latter. What is clear is that Trump wants to shake things up. Dan Drezner offers a persuasive rationale for why this might be so:

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Whether you look at the polling analysis or the prediction markets , Donald Trump is losing to Hillary Clinton, and it’s not all that close. There is a chance, albeit not a great one, that Trump can make this trip a political success…. When individuals are operating in the world of gains, they are more likely to prefer the sure thing to a risky bet that could net them even greater gain. When individuals are operating in the world of losses, however, they will prefer that risky lottery if it would recoup their losses. They will gamble for resurrection…. Relative to how he thought he’d be doing in the general election, Trump is operating in the world of loss. If he manages to go to Mexico City, have a productive meeting with the president of Mexico, generate some good visuals, and then give a tough immigration speech in Arizona, he’ll confound the conventional wisdom that he’d be an unmitigated disaster on the foreign stage. He’d also undercut Clinton’s core argument that Trump is unfit for office…. To sum up: Donald Trump is going to Mexico because he is losing. There is a small probability that this visit could reverse his electoral fortunes. But the odds are not in his favor.

As Drezner notes, there are all kinds of things that could go wrong: A logistical screw-up; Mexicans protesting Trump; a staged confrontation with Trump from Mexican president Pena Nieto.

But I wanted to suggest another possibility here: Trump might be hoping to get credit for this visit precisely because Mexicans dislike him so much, and precisely because he is going there in spite of that. Remember, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway has explicitly said that Trump “deserves credit” for merely being “bold” enough to go into African American communities and make his case. Never mind whether African Americans actually find what he says to be persuasive; that isn’t the real goal. The basic idea is that Trump is signaling to swing voters that he is not afraid to go into hostile territory and be politically incorrect enough to tell that territory’s inhabitants some hard truths that they are incapable of grasping themselves.

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As Jamelle Bouie explains, this is the real subtext of Trump’s “outreach” to African Americans, which is shot through with patronizing suggestions about how awful their lives are and about how their own “mindless” support for Democrats is a key reason for it.

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Given all we have seen, it is not preposterous to imagine that Trump sees his trip to Mexico in somewhat similar terms. Mexicans hate him, but that’s only because he would put an end to their scam — they are economically fleecing us and dumping their criminals into our country. Trump has not shied away from telling these hard truths, and now, he will not shy away from an in-person visit in spite of how much antipathy his truth-telling has engendered. If this is the game, the question then becomes whether Trump can manage this while also being “statesmanlike” about it, which he also needs to do, in order to ease concerns about his temperamental unfitness and lack of qualifications when it comes to handling international relations. It’s a pretty big gamble, and one he might be less inclined to undertake if he weren’t losing.

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* MEXICANS HATE TRUMP: The New York Times recaps how much animosity there is towards Trump in Mexico right now:

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Columns, articles and public forums have been filled with anti-Trump tirades, his words galvanizing Mexicans across the social spectrum. Artisans have fashioned Trump piñatas, and former President Vicente Fox has made it his mission to rebuke Mr. Trump’s every word, to name but two of the rejoinders from Mexican society. Last year, writers, intellectuals and scientists from across the Spanish-speaking world wrote a public letter denouncing Mr. Trump and accusing him of xenophobia.

Wait, the fact that Mexicans dislike Trump so much is a good thing, right?

* TRUMP DOWNPLAYS ANY IMMIGRATION SHIFT: NBC News previews Trump’s speech today:

The campaign has broadly tamped down expectations of a major shift on immigration enforcement while reaffirming its support for a physical border wall. At best, their comments seem to suggest he might move away rhetorically from past pledges to physically remove the entire undocumented population within two years, including family members of American citizens, using a “deportation force.”

Exactly. All Trump is doing is rhetorically backing away from mass deportations. All the 11 million will still be targets for removal — he’s just starting with the criminals first.

* AN IMPORTANT REALITY CHECK ON THE BORDER: With Trump likely to talk today about how tough he will be on the border, Leigh Ann Caldwell brings some crucial context:

Over the past 24 years, the amount of money spent on border security has increased 1,400 percent; the number of border patrol agents have increased 500 percent; the amount of border wall has grown from 77 miles to 700 miles since 2000; and the number of people being apprehended trying to cross the border have decreased by four-fifths.

The flow is down; the border is being managed. What this also means: When Trump backs away from his “deportation force,” it doesn’t mean much. We already have one, and he’d keep all 11 million as targets.

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* TRUMP PUTTING ‘HUMANE GLOSS’ ON DEPORTATION PLAN: Politico’s Eli Stokols reports on what Trump’s inner circle is really up to with his immigration rhetoric:

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Bannon, the former Breitbart CEO who has long cheered and defended Trump’s immigration policy, “would never” urge Trump to go soft on the issue, according to a source close to the controversial adviser. “He’s still a bomb-thrower,” said another campaign source. “But he knows that a few things need to be done to win this race.” According to that source, there is “broad agreement” among the inner circle that winning the election will require Trump to put a more humane gloss on his immigration proposals without significantly watering them down.

As I’ve argued, Trump’s rhetoric is designed to make his position seem more humane, when in fact he’s not meaningfully shifting on the deeper dispute over the long-term fate of the 11 million. This additional reporting would seem to confirm that anyone who says Trump is “softening” is getting suckered by his campaign, right?

* TRUMP FACES UPHILL BATTLE TO WIN BLACKS: The Los Angeles Times recaps one reason why Trump struggles with African Americans — the recent history of his party:

Before the civil rights battles of the last century, the Republican Party used to win about 30% of the black vote, on average, in presidential elections….But when…Barry Goldwater opposed the landmark civil rights bill during the 1964 campaign, black voters broke away from the GOP. Ever since, fewer than 6% of African Americans, on average, have voted for Republicans for president.

Of course, Trump’s “outreach” to African Americans is really designed to win back college educated whites, who are already persuaded Trump is either a bigot or is running a racist campaign.

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* OBAMA TO CAMPAIGN EXTENSIVELY IN BATTLEGROUNDS: Gardiner Harris reports that President Obama will make at least a dozen stops in swing states before election day:

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He will urge his most enthusiastic supporters — young voters and African-Americans — to register or to be sure to turn out to vote for Mrs. Clinton….Most of his appearances will be timed to coincide with voter registration deadlines….His focus on turnout reflects concerns that while polling suggests Mrs. Clinton has broad support from the same blocs of voters who twice elected Mr. Obama, they are not as enthusiastic about her candidacy.

One big unknown is whether key bloc in the Obama coalition — young voters and nonwhites — will turn out at Obama 2012 levels, and that’s what this is about.

* AND EVERYONE HATES BOTH CLINTON AND TRUMP: A new Post poll finds:

Americans’ views of her just hit a record low….41 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of Clinton, while 56 percent have an unfavorable one. That’s the worst image Clinton has had in her quarter-century in national public life….Trump, of course, has long been the more unpopular of the two presidential nominees, and he remains so; 35 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of him, compared to 63 percent unfavorable.