Enrique Peña Nieto says he made clear Mexico would not pay for a border wall despite Trump’s statement after the meeting that the two did not discuss it

Following their meeting on Wednesday, Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, insisted he told Donald Trump, during their meeting in Mexico City, that Mexico would not pay for a border wall between their two countries.

“At the start of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall,” Peña Nieto tweeted. A spokesman for the Mexican president later told the Guardian that there was no discussion of paying for the wall because Trump did not respond to Peña Nieto’s statement. “The president told him clearly and the matter was not discussed further.”

Trump had told reporters after the meeting that while the pair had discussed a border wall, the topic of who would pay for it did not come up. “We didn’t discuss payment of the wall. That’ll be for a later date,” Trump said.

Trump’s campaign later released a statement that did not directly address the controversy.

“Today was the first part of the discussion and a relationship builder between Mr Trump and President Peña Nieto. It was not a negotiation, and that would have been inappropriate. It is unsurprising that they hold two different views on this issue, and we look forward to continuing the conversation.”

A Trump source with knowledge of the meeting later added to the Guardian, “both parties knew each other’s positions going into today, and we didn’t think it was appropriate to start negotiating during this meeting.”

Peña Nieto had faced a wave of domestic criticism for inviting Trump to see him at Los Pinos, the residence of the Mexican president. The controversy came just hours after Trump left Mexico City for Arizona, where he was due to hold a major policy speech on immigration that same evening.

The two met for an hour and then appeared before reporters to make separate statements about their unusual summit.

Speaking at a podium next to Peña Nieto, Trump did his utmost to appear presidential on his second trip abroad and first meeting with a head of state as a candidate. However, in doing so, Trump seemed to continue the “softening” of his rhetoric on immigration in advance of his policy speech on the topic, which he was to deliver later on Wednesday night.

Speaking at the podium in restrained and almost subdued tones, Trump described undocumented immigrants as those entering the United States “without legal authorization”, praised first-, second- and third-generation Mexican Americans as “beyond reproach” and talked about keeping jobs “in our hemisphere”. This was in addition to Trump’s concession to reporters afterwards that while he had discussed building a border wall with Peña Nieto, he did not even bring up his signature proposal that Mexico would pay for such a wall.

This served as a major contrast to Trump’s fiery and often bombastic tone on the campaign trail.

He launched his candidacy in June 2015 by accusing Mexico of deliberately sending criminals and “rapists” to the US and has since claimed that a federal judge, Gustavo Curiel, could not do his job impartially because of his Mexican heritage. At almost every campaign rally since then, Trump has held a call and response with his rambunctious crowds, asking: “Who is going to pay for the wall?” The shouted answer has invariably been: “Mexico.”

The Republican nominee has also repeatedly bashed free trade agreements, like Nafta, which he has said allows US workers to lose their jobs to Mexicans; as well as attacking specific companies for shifting their operations to Mexico.

While it was speculated that Peña Nieto, who has a 23% approval rating in his own country, might berate Trump for political gain, the Mexican president took a rather restrained stance speaking before his guest.

He praised Trump for the “open and constructive” conversation they had. The Mexican president also did not directly criticize any of the controversial and racially charged remarks Trump has made since launching his campaign last year. Rather, Peña Nieto rebutted them indirectly by praising Mexican Americans.

“They are honest people, working people – they are people that respect family, they respect the life in the community and they are respective of the law. As such, Mexicans deserve everybody’s respect.” Although Peña Nieto pointedly defended Nafta, a longstanding target of ire for Trump, he concede the free trade agreement “could be improved”.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators hold placards during a protest against the visit of Donald Trump in Mexico City. Photograph: Tomas Bravo/Reuters

Mexicans reacted with outrage to Peña Nieto’s perceived deference and refusal to be tough with Trump.



“I can’t recall a time in the last 50 years when a Mexican president was so thoroughly humiliated in his own home,” said Esteban Illades, editor of the intellectual and current affairs magazine Nexos.



“Peña Nieto managed to make Trump look presidential while making himself look incredibly small. He ended up accepting an apology from Trump, even though Trump never even offered a half-hearted one.”

“@EPN reinforced in the US the stereotype of the docile Mexican, who you can insult and mock without consequences. The damage is done,” tweeted author Jorge Suárez-Vélez.

On Wednesday evening, Mexico’s foreign minister, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, tweeted in Spanish that the president had, during the meeting with Trump, “expressed the grievance and outrage of Mexicans at insults and offenses”.

Peña Nieto entered the meeting as Mexico’s most unpopular president since polling on presidential approval started in the mid-1990s. Analysts expect the encounter to diminish Peña Nieto’s popularity even further, especially since many Mexicans were expecting a robust response to a presidential candidate whose protectionist policies could cost Mexico economically.

“Peña Nieto claims he is just trying to protect Mexicans. How, by welcoming to Mexico the candidate who has portrayed them as the enemy?” said Carlos Bravo Regidor, a journalism professor at the Centre for Research and Teaching in Economics. “This is more than a diplomatic blunder. This is a mistake of global proportions.”

The event was held just hours before Trump’s scheduled speech on immigration in Phoenix, Arizona, and came as the Republican nominee is trying to pivot to appeal to moderate suburban voters that he alienated during his primary campaign.

In recent days, Trump has shifted away from his calls for “a deportation force” and deporting all 11 million illegal immigrants in the US within two years of taking office.

Instead, he has flip-flopped in the past week about a potential path to legal status for undocumented immigrants and attacked the media for even focusing on the issue.

“In recent days, the media – as it usually does – has missed the whole point on immigration. All the media wants to talk about is the 11 million or more people here illegally,” Trump told voters in Iowa on Saturday.

The campaign heralded Trump’s trip, where he was accompanied by Alabama senator Jeff Sessions and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani as a sign of Trump’s statesmanship.

In a statement, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Mike Pence, said: “What the American people are seeing today is the kind of decisive president Donald J Trump will be. This meeting begins a relationship where we can talk about the issues we’ve got to resolve between the United States and Mexico, as well as the issues we have in common.”

It didn’t publicize this statesmanship as much as it could have. Trump’s campaign intentionally left the traveling press corps in the United States and prevented reporters from coming along, something the campaign treasurer, Jeff DeWit, bragged about at the campaign rally in Phoenix on Wednesday night.

John Podesta, the chair of the Clinton campaign, mocked Trump for not pressing for Mexico to pay for the border wall in his meeting with Peña Nieto.

“Donald Trump has made his outlandish policy of forcing Mexico to pay for his giant wall the centerpiece of his campaign,” said Podesta. “But at the first opportunity to make good on his offensive campaign promises, Trump choked. What we saw today from a man who claims to be the ultimate ‘deal maker’ is that he doesn’t have the courage to advocate for his campaign promises when he’s not in front of a friendly crowd.”

After Peña Nieto’s tweet, Podesta revised his statement: “It turns out Trump didn’t just choke, he got beat in the room and lied about it.”