Donald Trump is weighing a last-minute trip to Mexico to meet with the country’s president on Wednesday, just hours before he is set to deliver a speech focused on immigration policy, a source familiar with the plans told CNN on Tuesday.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s office said in a statement Tuesday that Nieto extended invitations to both Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, but that no meetings have yet been confirmed.
A meeting between Trump and Peña Nieto would be extraordinary, given Trump’s continued pledges to build a wall on the border with Mexico and make Mexico pay for it. Trump has also stoked fierce criticism in Mexico and in the Hispanic community at large for his at-times inflammatory rhetoric in discussing illegal immigration.
The source familiar with the situation said the Trump campaign is considering the offer and will decide late Tuesday whether to travel to Mexico.
The Washington Post first reported the news earlier Tuesday evening.
The potential visit follows months of warring words between Trump and Mexico’s leaders, including when Peña Nieto compared Trump to brutal dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Trump in the early months of his campaign also leveled unfounded accusations that the Mexican government was intentionally sending its unwanted citizens across the border and into the United States
But both Trump and Nieto have publicly expressed a willingness in recent weeks to meet with one another.
“Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Mr. Donald Trump, I would like to express to both of them my greatest respect, my deepest respect. And from right now, I propose going into a frank, open dialogue with whomever is elected,” Nieto said in July during a joint news conference with President Barack Obama at the White House.