MEXICO
CITY – Mexico’s president rebuked Donald Trump as a threat to his country just
hours after painting a positive picture of talks the two held on Wednesday to
try to defuse tensions over the U.S. presidential hopeful’s anti-Mexican
campaign rhetoric.

President
Enrique Pena Nieto had on Wednesday afternoon hailed as “open and
constructive” the impromptu meeting he held with Trump, who later referred
to the Mexican leader as his friend and a “wonderful” president.

But
in a late evening television interview, an angry-looking Pena Nieto sought to
defend himself against a broad swathe of criticism for his decision to invite
the Republican candidate despite his repeated verbal attacks on Mexico.

“His
policy stances could represent a huge threat to Mexico, and I am not prepared
to keep my arms crossed and do nothing,” Pena Nieto said. “That risk,
that threat, must be confronted. I told him that is not the way to build a
mutually beneficial relationship for both nations.”

Trump’s
quick acceptance of an invitation sent last Friday took Mexico’s government by
surprise, and his visit to Mexico City came just hours ahead of a keynote
speech on immigration as he sought to close the gap on Democratic rival Hillary
Clinton.

The
real estate mogul’s accusations that Mexico sends rapists and drug runners to
the United States, and his threats to build a border wall and tear up trade
deals, have angered the government but his meeting with Pena Nieto on Wednesday
gave him a chance to present himself in a more moderate light.

He
spoke of Mexican-Americans in glowing terms and stressed the areas of common
interest between the two countries even as he stuck to his message that he
would put up the wall.

Pena
Nieto had likened Trump to dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini earlier
this year. But his government said Trump understood its concerns at the
meeting, making Pena Nieto’s tense appearance on television the more
surprising.

“What
we saw was a respectful attitude and discourse from Donald Trump,”
presidential spokesman Eduardo Sanchez had said earlier, arguing that progress
was made on the issue of trade after prior threats by Trump to tear up the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“I
think there was an advance in general,” he added.

Still,
Trump laid out a series of tough policies to tackle illegal immigration when he
delivered his speech in Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday night.

He
told a cheering crowd that Mexico would pay for the wall “100
percent” and that if he wins the election anyone living illegally in the
United States would be sent back to their home country and made to apply for
re-entry.

That
would include millions of Mexicans.

Opposition
politicians in Mexico rounded on Pena Nieto for hosting Trump.

“Instead
of making him apologize, the government allowed (Trump) to complete the
humiliation of the Mexicans,” Ricardo Anaya, leader of the center-right
opposition National Action Party, said on Twitter.

WALL TO WALL

Some
Mexican officials also privately expressed reservations about the meeting with
one former diplomat saying Pena Nieto had done Trump’s campaign a favor.

During
a joint news conference after their meeting, Trump said he and Pena Nieto had
not discussed his demand that Mexico pay for the border wall.

But
Pena Nieto later contradicted Trump, saying he had told the American that
Mexico would not foot the bill, and he bristled during his television interview
when asked why he had not made that clear at the news conference.

Speaking
on condition of anonymity, a Mexican government official said the two men spoke
English during the meeting and that Pena Nieto clearly explained to Trump the
offense his comments had caused.

“He’s a candidate that
offended a lot of Mexicans, so that’s the chemistry there was (between
them),” the official said.

-Reuters