MEXICO CITY _ Donald Trump showcased his flair for the dramatic spectacle again Wednesday, flying his unpredictable campaign across the southern border for a hastily arranged summit with the president of a country he has repeatedly maligned.
The move was stunning for a nominee whose presidential run began with harsh denunciations of Mexicans, whom he called "rapists" when he announced his candidacy, and whose slogan-ready pledge to build a border wall includes the improbable idea that Mexico will pay for it.
Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had a cordial but frank discussion for about an hour at the presidential residence. The men said they did not discuss whether Mexico would pay for a wall along the countries' shared border, a core campaign promise of the Republican presidential nominee. But Pena Nieto pointedly vowed to protect Mexican nationals living in the U.S. who contribute to prosperity and "deserve the respect of everyone."
For his part, Trump said he was "straightforward in presenting my views about the impacts of current trade and immigration policies of the United States."
The visit to Mexico, just hours before Trump planned to deliver a long-awaited speech on immigration, represented yet another gamble for the GOP presidential candidate.
A high-level meeting in a presidential palace with a foreign leader allowed the outsider candidate to demonstrate statesmanship and to assure voters that his tough talk will not prevent him from engaging in dialogue with foreign leaders.
Interviews, focus groups and polling have shown that some persuadable voters have been reluctant to support Trump because he does not seem presidential, in part because of his bellicose rhetoric toward close American allies like Mexico, as well as inflammatory language directed at Mexican immigrants crossing the border illegally and to a U.S.-born judge of Mexican descent.
Trump often has insisted his rhetoric and reputation would give him the upper hand in negotiations because governments would show him more respect than they do President Barack Obama, whose style tends toward the cerebral and conciliatory. He has said that, once elected, "I can be more presidential than anybody."
Yet the visit also threatened to highlight the widespread anger Trump has inspired in Mexico and, perhaps, to demonstrate the futility in trying to force Mexico to pay for a border wall.
The Mexico visit also ensures that Trump, and his freewheeling campaign, command maximum attention during a moment on the calendar when many Americans tune the campaign out.
That cuts in multiple directions. The trip helps distract from the details of Trump's immigration policy, an issue that has caused him trouble over the past two weeks because he has waffled on whether he will abandon his pledge to deport 11 million immigrants who have entered the country illegally.
Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, released a statement Wednesday recounting Trump's inflammatory language toward Mexican immigrants and his promise to deport millions "including children and U.S. citizens."
"What ultimately matters is what Donald Trump says to voters in Arizona, not Mexico, and whether he remains committed to the splitting up of families and deportation of millions," she said.
The attention on Trump's trip also may benefit Clinton, who could be facing a tough week of scrutiny. The FBI is planning to release its investigative file on Clinton's private email server, an issue for which she was criticized by FBI Director James Comey for being "extremely careless" when he announced in July that he was not recommending criminal charges be pursued by federal prosecutors.
Clinton also has been on a high-dollar fundraising tear that has been criticized by some as unseemly amid a campaign that focuses on economic equality. Tuesday, for example, she attended an event in the Hamptons that raised more than $2.5 million from 10 donors who each gave at least $250,000.
A far riskier gamble faces Pena Nieto, who recently extended invitations to both Trump and Clinton. Trump and Pena Nieto are extremely unpopular in Mexico, and news that the GOP candidate was arriving Wednesday puzzled and infuriated Mexicans across all political lines.
The Mexican president may hope his hosting of such a high-profile luminary will distract Mexicans from the raft of scandals crippling his government, including massacres by security forces, economic slowdown, rampant corruption at the highest levels of his administration and, most recently, revelations that Pena Nieto plagiarized a good portion of his law degree thesis.
But turning to someone so reviled as Trump does not seem like the kind of distraction the Mexican president needs. Pena Nieto, more than halfway through his term and polling at historically low approval ratings, portrayed the meeting as a diplomatic opportunity that allowed him to pitch to Trump the importance of the NAFTA trade deal and the free flow of remittances, money that Mexicans working in the U.S. send home _ and which Trump has threatened to use as blackmail to make Mexico pay for his border wall.
Because the meeting was held in private, it is unclear how the Mexican government can take advantage of the talks, though. And Pena Nieto is not known for a willingness to be confrontational nor to possess the authoritative rigor to take on the likes of Trump.
"There are no benefits to gain from this visit," said Luis Rubio, head of a Mexican think tank and a fellow at the Washington-based Wilson Center. "The best you can hope for is that there will be a private message (that Trump) doesn't mean harm and will fix it after he's elected. I don't see any upside emanating from this."
Respected Mexican historian Enrique Krauze called the invitation a "historic error." "You don't appease tyrants; you confront them," Krauze said via Twitter.
A small group of protesters gathered at Mexico City's Plaza del Angel to register their displeasure with Trump. Several held signs that said simply: "Go home."
Mexico City's local parliament declared Trump a persona non grata, and opposition parties attacked Pena Nieto for allowing himself to be "used" by Trump's base political machinations.
Even more dangerous, several analysts said, is that Trump will make nice in Mexico, then return to the campaign trail and to his divisive rhetoric, perhaps saying he had gone to "lecture" Mexicans and tell them what he expected of them.
As the No. 2 market for U.S. products and a key partner in fighting drug trafficking, Mexico's economic, political and cultural ties with the United States cannot be overestimated, and experts insist that whoever the next U.S. president is, he or she will have to maintain a productive relationship, not one based on acrimony.
Trump will "stress the positive" and the economic and security interests the two countries share, Larry Rubin, president of an organization of Republican Party members who live in Mexico, told Milenio TV in Mexico City.
Contrary to Trump's assertions, immigration by Mexicans into the United States is at its lowest level in decades. More Mexicans have been leaving the U.S. to return to their homeland than going northward. In addition, an estimated 1 million U.S. citizens live full or part time in Mexico. Many are registered voters of both U.S. political parties.
Traditionally reluctant to appear to be intervening in U.S. politics, the Mexican government initially was restrained in commenting on Trump's more outrageous statements. Eventually, under pressure from his own constituencies, Pena Nieto began to describe the real estate tycoon's rhetoric as ominously similar to the populist stridency employed by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. And he said point-blank Mexico would not pay for a border wall.
More quietly, the Mexican government, through a vast network of consulates in two dozen U.S. cities, is offering support for Mexicans who are eligible to become U.S. citizens and helping them register to vote, especially in swing states.
Security for Trump's trip to Mexico was handled within the Secret Service, and the U.S. embassy in Mexico City was not asked to participate and did not, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
Trump's visit recalls a trek he made last July, during a still-crowded Republican primary, to Laredo, Texas, to visit the Mexican border. Like the trip to Mexico, it was arranged at the last minute amid controversy surrounding his immigration rhetoric.
But it foreshadowed Trump's success in the primaries, showing his knack for using a bold and spontaneous gesture to gain attention, his willingness to confront controversy in person and, for the first time, his ability to market "Make America Great Again" baseball caps.
More recently, in June, Trump traveled to Scotland in what was billed as a business trip. His speech from the greens of his golf course, just after Britons voted to leave the European Union, struck many as odd. He spent most of his time describing renovations to individual holes and promoting spectacular views, showing little command or interest in the intricacies of European economic policy, except as it related to potential profits from his golf course.
