The Trump campaign dropped a juicy new plot twist in its ongoing immigration policy (softening?) saga Tuesday night when it announced the Republican nominee is making a surprise trip to Mexico! Wait, what? When? Wednesday! Why wait? Trump doesn’t wait. Trump does. That’s how we got into this mess in the first place. What started as rumblings from the Trump campaign leaked to the Washington Post were later confirmed on Twitter that the Donald is, in fact, going to squeeze in the trip to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on extremely short notice despite the logistics and security issues of such a jaunt.
The idea of a tête-à-tête with the leader of the country Trump has disparaged since entering the race was the Mexican president’s. Last week, Peña Nieto issued invitations to both presidential candidates to meet with him in Mexico City and the Trump campaign, which of late has lost the plot when it comes to what it thinks about immigration, immigrants, and the difference between soft and hard, turned out to be game for a trip south of the border.
The timing of the excursion coincides with Trump’s scheduled once and for all clarifying speech Wednesday on immigration in Arizona. It would certainly make sense to meet with Peña Nieto before, rather than after, announcing a policy, but it’s unclear what a Trump-Nieto meeting will look like or how it could impact Trump’s remarks later that day. Peña Nieto has pushed back against Trump’s characterizations of his country and countrymen; he’s also compared Trump to Hitler and Mussolini in the past. Trump’s generally offensive thoughts on Mexico need no introduction really as the candidate has a long history on the campaign trail of blaming Mexico for most things. And then there’s the wall. This has the feel of a political stunt rather than an actual summit, but at this point it’s not clear who it serves best.
