Donald Trump 'was told Mexico won't pay for border wall'

Latest: Donald Trump was told that Mexico would not pay for the tycoon's proposed border wall, President Enrique Pena Nieto has said.

Donald Trump 'was told Mexico won't pay for border wall'

Update 1am: Donald Trump was told that Mexico would not pay for the tycoon's proposed border wall, President Enrique Pena Nieto has said.

The Republican presidential nominee said after meeting Mr Pena Nieto that they discussed the massive wall on the US-Mexico border, but not paying for it.

However the Mexican president later tweeted: At the beginning of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made clear that Mexico would not pay for the wall."

The two men met privately in Mexico City on Wednesday afternoon. Mr Trump is due to give a major speech on immigration in Arizona later.

Update 10.15pm: Donald Trump has defended the right of the United States to build a massive border wall along its southern flank as he arrived in Mexico to meet the country's president.

However, he declined to repeat his frequent promise to force Mexico to pay for it as he stood alongside Enrique Pena Nieto.

Mr Trump, the US presidential candidate who is widely despised across Mexico, also side-stepped his repeated criticism of Mexican immigrants following a closed-door meeting at the official residence of the president.

Mr Trump and Mr Pena Nieto, who has compared the New York billionaire to Adolf Hitler, addressed reporters from adjacent podiums flanked by a Mexican flag.

"We did discus the wall. We didn't discuss payment of the wall," Mr Trump said.

In his announcement of his presidential candidacy last year, Mr Trump derided Mexico as a source of rapists and criminals coming to the US, and his presence on Wednesday sparked anger and protests across the capital city.

A former Mexican president bluntly told the celebrity businessman that, despite Mr Pena Nieto's hospitality, he was not welcome.

"We don't like him. We don't want him. We reject his visit," former president Vicente Fox said, calling the trip a "political stunt".

Mr Pena Nieto was less combative as he addressed reporters alongside Mr Trump. He acknowledged the two men had differences, but he described their conversation as "open and constructive". They shook hands as the session ended.

The trip, a politically risky move for Mr Trump 10 weeks before election day, came just hours before the Republican nominee was to deliver a highly anticipated speech in Arizona about illegal immigration. That has been a defining issue of Mr Trump's presidential campaign, but also one on which he has appeared to waver in recent days.

After saying during his Republican primary campaign he would use a "deportation force" to expel all of the estimated 11 million people living in the United States illegally, Mr Trump suggested last week he could soften that stance.

But he still says he plans to build a huge wall - paid for by Mexico - along the two nations' border. He is under pressure to clarify just where he stands in a speech that has been rescheduled several times as he and his staff sent varied and conflicting messages on the issue.

"The American people are going to see more clearly that there's one candidate in this race who's prepared to take the steps necessary to end the flood of illegal immigration," Mr Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, said.

The build-up to the speech was abruptly interrupted on Tuesday night by the news that Mr Trump would visit Mexico, accepting on short notice an invitation offered last week by Mr Pena Nieto. The newspaper El Universal wrote in an editorial that Mr Trump "caught Mexican diplomats off guard".

Earlier:Donald Trump has arrived in Mexico to meet the president of a nation he derided at the start of his White House campaign as a source of rapists and criminals coming to the United States.

The trip, a politically risky move 10 weeks before Election Day, puts Mr Trump in a country where he is widely despised alongside a foreign leader who has compared him to Adolf Hitler.

It also comes hours before the Republican presidential nominee delivers a highly anticipated speech in Arizona about illegal immigration, a defining issue of Mr Trump's presidential campaign - but also one on which he has appeared to waver in recent days.

The visit follows an invitation from President Enrique Pena Nieto, but protests are expected.

Both a former Mexican president and first lady bluntly told the billionaire New Yorker that, despite Mr Pena Nieto's hospitality, he is not welcome.

"We don't like him. We don't want him. We reject his visit," former Mexican President Vicente Fox told CNN, calling the trip a "political stunt."

Added former first lady Margarita Zavala on Twitter: "We Mexicans have dignity, and we reject your hate speech."

After saying during his Republican primary campaign he would use a "deportation force" to expel all of the estimated 11 million people living in the United States illegally," Mr Trump suggested last week he could soften that stance.

But he still says he plans to build a huge wall - paid for by Mexico - along the two nations' border.

He is under pressure to clarify just where he stands in a speech that has been rescheduled several times as he and his staff has sent varied and conflicting messages on the issue.

"The American people are going to see more clearly that there's one candidate in this race who's prepared to take the steps necessary to end the flood of illegal immigration," Trump's running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, said on CNN.

Mr Trump will also make clear, Mr Pence later told CBS, "that there will be no path to legalisation, no path to citizenship. People will need to leave the country to be able to obtain legal status or obtain citizenship."

The build-up to the speech was abruptly interrupted on Tuesday night by the news that Mr Trump would make the visit, accepting on short notice an invitation offered last week by President Pena Nieto.

The newspaper El Universal wrote in an editorial that Mr Trump "caught Mexican diplomats off guard."

More than 100 members of the Mexican press were gathered at Mr Pena Nieto's residence, where Mr Trump and the Mexican president were scheduled to make a joint appearance after a private meeting.

Campaigning in Ohio, Democrat Hillary Clinton jabbed at Trump's Mexican visit as she promoted her own experience working with foreign leaders as the nation's chief diplomat.

"People have to get to know that they can count on you, that you won't say one thing one day and something totally different the next," she told the American Legion in Cincinnati.

"And it certainly takes more than trying to make up for a year of insults and insinuations by dropping in on our neighbours for a few hours and then flying home again."

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