Donald Trump will visit Mexico on Wednesday to speak with President Enrique Peña Nieto, a trip that will take him to a nation he has repeatedly scorned as a candidate.
Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday night that he had accepted an invitation from Peña Nieto and looked "very much forward" to meeting with him. Peña Nieto's office confirmed the invitation Tuesday and said one had also been sent to Hillary Clinton.
The negotiations for the trip were reported in The Washington Post.
Peña Nieto's outreach to Trump is likely to strike many Mexicans as odd. Trump has regularly taken an antagonistic attitude toward Mexico in his policies and campaign rallies, saying that many immigrants entering the United States illegally from there are rapists and repeatedly insisting that Mexico will pay for his proposed wall along the southern U.S. border.
He is widely reviled in the country, where the border wall plan revived deep grievances over sovereignty and respect that have historically dogged Mexico's relationship with the United States.
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Politicians in Mexico have largely remained silent on Trump, although there have been outbursts, including from Peña Nieto himself. In March, he compared Trump to Hitler and Mussolini for what he called Trump's strident remarks and populism. He later tried to soften his words without quite taking them back.
There are likely to be protests during Trump's visit, which Peña Nieto's office said would involve a private meeting at the presidential palace in Mexico City.
The trip will take place hours before Trump gives a speech in Phoenix that is expected to clarify his stance on immigration, which has plagued his campaign over the past few weeks as he has wavered on key elements of his platform. His campaign has given conflicting signals over whether he will stick to the hard-line positions he took during the Republican primaries, particularly on deportations, and he suggested recently that he was open to "softening" some of his proposals. But his calls to have Mexico pay for the wall have continued.
Neither the Trump nor Clinton campaigns responded to requests for comment.
The trip, a potentially conciliatory gesture, is the latest gamble for Trump and his struggling campaign. But for all the risk it poses, it offers an image Trump relishes: of a wily negotiator willing to do the unexpected — meeting with a perceived enemy — to advance his agenda.
It will also be his first official meeting with a head of state as the Republican presidential nominee.
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Despite Trump's routine scolding of Mexico and its leadership, several of his closest allies have warm ties with the country and its president. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a top Trump adviser and confidant, traveled to Mexico in 2014 to meet with Peña Nieto, arguing that it was imperative for the United States to put Mexico at the center of its foreign relations.
During that trip, Christie offered lavish praise for Peña Nieto's market-oriented policies and, unlike Trump, spoke of the need to cultivate stronger ties with Mexico.
"Too often, our neighbors in Mexico and Canada have felt that they were an afterthought in U.S. foreign policy," he said. "My view is that they should be our first thought."
A person briefed on discussions for the trip said that Christie, who leads Trump's transition team, had helped with them.
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 criminals. Since then, columns, articles and public forums have been filled with anti-Trump tirades, his words galvanizing Mexicans across the social spectrum.
Artisans have fashioned Trump piñatas, and former President Vicente Fox has made it his mission to rebuke Trump's every word. Last year, writers, intellectuals and scientists from across the Spanish-speaking world wrote a public letter denouncing Trump and accusing him of xenophobia.
Peña Nieto's finance minister has said that under no circumstances would Mexico pay for a border wall.
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Andrew Selee, the executive vice president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a Mexico expert, said that Mexico's motivation to invite Trump might simply have been pragmatic.
"I think the Mexican government wants channels with whoever is going to be president of the U.S. next, and Trump is a legitimate candidate," Selee said. "And from a political perspective, Peña Nieto getting Trump to come to Mexico shows that Trump has been forced to shift some of his rhetoric and take Mexico seriously."
Considering how often Trump comes up in conversation in Mexico, and the insult felt by the nation every time he talks about the wall, the government has remained disciplined in its public statements. That is in part a political decision: Officials feel that any responses will do little but provide more publicity for the candidate.
For Peña Nieto, though, the politics could be difficult. His poll numbers are the lowest of any Mexican president in a quarter-century, and welcoming a candidate whom many view as a sovereign enemy would probably do little to increase his popularity.
And while the Mexican government routinely manages state visits that present logistical challenges, including the multicity tour of Pope Francis this year, a Trump visit seems certain to incite public anger.