Donald Trump’s shock trip to Mexico has the potential to shake up the US presidential election as the Republican candidate continues in an attempt to “soften” what has been one of his most hardline and controversial policy areas – immigration.

Scheduled to take place just hours before Trump will finally spell out a definitive immigration policy after 14 months on the campaign trail, it will mark the first time that Trump has met with a head of state since becoming the Republican nominee and only his second foreign trip as a candidate. The first was his trip to Scotland in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum.



The visit was announced in characteristic fashion by Trump, on Twitter. Just minutes before the Republican candidate was due to take the stage at a campaign rally in the safe Democratic state of Washington on Tuesday night, he tweeted: “I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Peña Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow.”

The meeting marks a shift in tone for Peña Nieto, who compared Trump to Mussolini and Hitler in a March interview with a Mexican newspaper. “I believe in dialogue to promote the interests of Mexico in the world and to protect Mexicans wherever they are,” he tweeted early on Wednesday morning.

It comes as the Mexican president is facing historically low approval ratings amid a plagiarism controversy and an ongoing corruption scandal over a house purchased by his wife from a government contractor.

Trump touched down in Mexico City shortly after 1pm local time and is scheduled to meet with Pena Nieto for roughly 90 minutes at Los Pinos, the presidential residence. Afterwards both the Mexican president and the Republican nominee are expected to give statements to the press. It is unclear if either will take questions although Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, insisted Wednesday that “there’s going to be a press availability” in an interview with Fox News.

Trump’s visit has not been well received south of the border. “@realDonaldTrump you are not welcome in Mexico,” tweeted Miguel Barbosa, of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution. “Get out! You’re coming to get your picture taken with the very people you’ve offended.”

The former president Vicente Fox, who has frequently criticised Trump for his conduct towards Mexicans, was equally direct. “There’s no turning back, Trump, your insults to Mexicans, Muslims and others have dropped you into the hole where you find yourself today. Goodbye, Trump!”

Hillary Clinton told an audience in Ohio that her Republican opponent “can’t make up for a year of insults by dropping in on our neighbors for a few hours and flying home again”.

Trump has long expressed hostility towards Mexico and has pledged that he will make the country bear all the costs of the infamous border wall that he has pledged to construct. The pledge is a staple of his campaign rallies, at which he frequently asks the crowd: “Who is going to pay for the wall?” The response is loudly shouted: “Mexico.”



Within minutes of announcing his presidential campaign in June 2015, Trump claimed that the Mexican government was deliberately sending criminals and rapists across the border to the United States. The Republican nominee has tweeted that Mexico is an “enemy” of the United States and that the country is “corrupt.” Despite all this, he has long maintained: “I love the Mexican people.”

The trip is only Trump’s second visit abroad as a candidate. Although presidential candidates often travel overseas to boost their foreign policy credentials, Trump has kept almost entirely to the United States. The only exception was his June trip to Scotland for the opening of his golf course there. Then, Trump held a self-congratulatory press conference only hours after the UK had voted to leave the EU, at which the Republican nominee praised himself for correctly predicting the result.

Unlike his trip to Scotland, Trump’s visit to Mexico is intended to promote his campaign, not his personal business interests. It underscores the messaging in Trump’s immigration speech scheduled for Wednesday night in Phoenix, Arizona. There, the Republican nominee is expected to try to strike a balance between the hardline rhetoric he used throughout the Republican primary and the need to deflect charges of racism in order to win a general election in November.

The Republican nominee has struggled in the past two weeks to clarify his position on immigration, specifically whether he is undergoing “a softening” on his past call for the deportation of all 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Trump, who previously backed “a deportation force,” seemingly endorsed a path to legal status for undocumented immigrations and then reversed himself in the past week. The resulting lack of clarity forced prominent rightwing talkshow host Rush Limbaugh to admit to his audience on Monday: “I never took him seriously” on immigration.

In a statement, Tana Goertz, a former contestant on Trump’s television show The Apprentice and senior advisor to his campaign, insisted that Trump would stay tough on immigration in his speech on Wednesday.

“Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald J Trump has been consistent in his calls to end illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border. He is the only candidate in this race who will stop illegal immigration, secure our border, end sanctuary cities, enforce our existing laws and stop American employers from hiring illegal workers,” she said. “These reforms will not only put an end to our illegal immigration epidemic — they will promote safe communities and good-paying jobs that will make America great again.”

The move on immigration follows rhetorical attempts to reach out to African American voters following a shakeup of his campaign team and the hiring of pollster Kellyanne Conway as his campaign manager and Steve Bannon, former executive chairman of rightwing website Breitbart, as his campaign CEO.

Trump is not the only presidential candidate who has received an invitation from Peña Nieto. In a statement from senior campaign official, the Clinton campaign told the Guardian: “We have received a letter from President Peña Nieto requesting an opportunity to meet. Secretary Clinton last met with President Peña Nieto in Mexico in 2014 and our campaign is in a regular dialogue with the Mexican government officials. She looks forward to talking with President Peña Nieto again at the appropriate time.”

Trump reportedly went to Mexico accompanied by two close advisers, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama. However, the Republican nominee was not accompanied by his traveling press corps, who have been stranded in the United States in an unprecedented step. The Trump campaign has been historically combative towards the press and refused to credential a number of outlets for his events, including the Guardian in one instance, on his trip to Scotland.

Additional reporting by Sam Jones and David Agren in Villahermosa, Mexico