Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will make a trip to Mexico to meet President Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday.
This would be Trump's first formal interaction with a foreign head of state after he jumped into the electoral arena last year.
Moments before taking the stage for a rally in Everett, Washington, just north of Seattle, Trump tweeted that he had "accepted the invitation of President Enrique Peña Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow".
The meeting will happen hours before Trump is scheduled to deliver a major address on immigration in Phoenix, Arizona, in which he will aim to clarify his increasingly murky stance on the issue.
Trump is widely reviled in Mexico, where his plans for a border wall have been taken as an insult and revived deep grievances over sovereignty and mutual respect that have historically dogged the country's relationship with the United States. The 70-year-old reality TV star has in the past called some Mexicans as drug dealers, "rapists" and other criminals.
Mexico's disaffection with Trump began early in his campaign, when he said, among other things, that the immigrants entering the United States illegally from Mexico were rapists. From that point on, columns, articles and public forums have been filled with anti-Trump tirades, his words galvanizing Mexicans across the social spectrum.
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.
Nieto had invited Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton too for a meeting. Both campaigns received the invitation on good terms, the president's office told The Washington Post in a statement.
Foreign trips by presidential candidates, even to a neighboring country such as Mexico, are an enormous logistical and security undertaking. It is unclear whether Trump could receive clearance from Secret Service to make the trip or whether his small campaign team could organize the logistics in time for even a short visit.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a close Trump adviser, has been among those pushing Trump to make the trip, according to a person familiar with their conversations. Christie made his own successful trip to Mexico City in September 2014, and has a warm relationship with the Mexican president.
Some Mexican analysts see Wednesday's meeting in a positive light.
"Nieto will look like more of a statesman and diplomat by receiving him than by denying the possibility of a meeting," Alejandro Schtulmann, president of Mexico City-based political-risk advisory and consulting firm Empra, told Bloomberg.
"For the Mexican government, as long as the meeting takes place in Mexico, it will be a positive development. If Pena Nieto were to travel to the US for it, people would see him as a sellout. If Trump comes to Mexico's, he's trying to mend fences."
IMAGE: A snap posted by Trump on his Instagram account three months ago captioned: Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! Photograph: Donald Trump/Instagram
