Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto met with Republican GOP nominee Donald Trump Wednesday afternoon in Mexico City, mere hours before Trump is scheduled to give a major address involving immigration policy in Arizona.
Peña Nieto described the meeting as "constructive and open." Trump also called the meeting constructive. But following the meeting, he tweeted that he told Trump that Mexico refuses to pay for a wall along the border.
This contradicts a claim made by Trump at a joint press conference earlier on Wednesday. Part of Trump's candidacy has been to build a wall along the southern border, and that Mexico would pay for it.
"We did the discuss the wall, we didn’t discuss the payment of the wall," Trump said.
Trump was joined by Sen. Jeff Sessions and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
"We had a very constructive and direct exchange of ideas," Trump said. "I was straightforward in presenting my views on current trade and immigration policies in the United States."
Peña Nieto said that Mexicans were hurt by comments referring to Mexicans coming to the United States as criminals and rapists, "but his general interest is to build both of our societies' welfare."
A central theme of Wednesday's meeting was to discuss trade between the United States and Mexico.
Peña Nieto said he believes the North American Free Trade Agreement has benefited both the United States and Mexico. Trump responded by saying he believes that Mexico has benefited more from NAFTA than the United States.
"I shared my convention that free trade has done a lot of good for the US and Mexico. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, more than 6 million jobs on rely on the exports to Mexico," Peña Nieto said.
Trump fired back on calls to keep NAFTA the way it is.
"NAFTA is a 22-year old agreement that needs to be updated.”
Peña Nieto said he has also extended an invitation to meet with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
