December. Republican president ial candidate donald trump in december, he was due to meet in washington with a jewish republican group, and a day before that meeting was due to happen, he surprised everyone at a Campaign Rally by saying that, as a president ial candidate, as a known calming presence, as i uniter of divided people, as a person who pours oil on troubled waters, donald trump would take his first trip abroad as a politician. He would be visiting israel. Just what they need. Well, i love israel, and israel is our our real strong supporter if you look at whats going on. And ill tell you what and i will say it here, and my people say, dont say it, but very soon im going to israel and ill be meeting with benjamin netanyahu. That was a surprise. That was donald trump speaking december 2nd, announcing, he said my people dont want me to say this, but hes going to be traveling as a president ial candidate to israel, specifically to meet with israeli Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu. That was december 2nd. Within a week, things started to get a little woolly. A week later he said he would still go to israel, but he wouldnt say who he was going to be meeting with. You said you are going to meet with benjamin netanyahu. I didnt say that. Im going to israel, im not saying who im meeting with. Would you meet with him . Im just going to israel, sometime prior to the end of the year, but im not saying who im meeting with. First week in december, hes going to israel, meeting with benjamin netanyahu. Second week of december, well, hes definitely going to israel, but he never said he was going to be meeting with Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu. In fact, hes uncomfortable saying who hell be meeting with at all. The next day, turns out actually maybe this israel thing is not a great idea at all. Im in the midst of a very powerful campaign thats going very well. And it was not that easy to do. So i would say lots of different reasons, i could have done it. It was semi scheduled. All im doing is postponing it, and i think that was the better alternative. Yeah, so that didnt happen. That was strike one. First thing he tried to do like this was go to israel. That did not work out and it didnt work out in a very messy way. His second try was ireland. Do you remember when he was going to go to ireland . In june the Trump Campaign put out this statement saying they were going to be going to ireland. That was an interesting choice because there had been lots of robust and untidy irish protests over the years against previous american visitors who were not nearly as controversial as donald trump. So it raised eyebrows that he was going to brave what would certainly be an unwarm welcome from the people of ireland. To underscore those stakes, the irish Prime Minister announced publicly if donald trump did really decide to go to ireland, the Prime Minister would hope to meet him in person on that visit, but only so he could tell donald trump to his face how racist and dangerous he thinks he is. So after initially announcing that donald trump would be going to ireland, donald trump decided not to go to ireland. They never announced that he wouldnt be going, they just removed that trip from his itinerary. He did, however, take that same trip, just minus ireland. He did go to scotland. I would hesitate to call that a president ial candidate trip to scotland. Technically he went for the i guess it was the ribboncutting on new renovations at one of his golf courses. And overall, its just not like that trip had a real political flavor. Inside the lighthouse right now is incredible suites, and its called the halfway house, because this is the ninth tee, and its called the halfway house. And on the bottom, you have dining and golfers will stop and theyll go and get something to eat, and then they go on to the tenth hole, tenth tee, right next door. He did make it to scotland, since hes been a president ial candidate, but it was not exactly a political blockbuster of a trip. I mean, he did touch foreign soil as a president ial candidate. After he tried to go to israel and that got canceled, tried to go to ireland and that got canceled, he did make it to scotland, but went to his own trump property, conducted a press conference to attract visitors to his golf course. He met no foreign leaders, held no political meetings as far as we know. So that one, despite touching foreign soil, im not sure that countdowns as a president ial candidate trip. That was his record heading into today, sort of two strikes and a baby foul ball. But today, he did finally do it. With only a few hours notice, surprise donald trump today popped up in mexico city. If you have any idea of how donald trump is perceived in the nation of mexico, its maybe not a surprise that this trip was planned as such a surprise. You dont necessarily want to give the people of mexico a lot of lead time to know where youre going to be and when. Donald trump famously announced the launch of his president ial campaign by declaring mexican immigrants to the United States to be criminals and rapists. Hes since described mexico has the enemy. Over the course of his campaign, the trump pinata has become very popular, not just in Mexican American neighborhoods in the United States, its also become very popular in mexico. Theres a lot of different iterations of it. The other thing thats become quite popular in mexico is this unflattering bucktoothed donald trump mask, which, if you pay for the deluxe version, you get, yes, a rubber mask, but it does come with real stringy hair. Theyre apparently selling those by the tens of thousands in mexico. Also, if you have an androidequipped phone, you might enjoy this game, which gives players a choice of projectiles that you can throw at donald trump to earn points and bonus lives and hopefully, eventually, run him off the stage. When youre looking for things to throw at him, you can choose from a cactus leaf, or bowling ball, or soccer ball, or tequila bottle, or the International Thing for public figures hated everywhere, the shoe. That said, its a game, so there has to be a strategy, cant just do one thing or its not really a game. The strategy here is that this game also gives you the option of throwing flowers or money at donald trump. But thats the strategic trick. If you accidentally throw flowers or money at him, instead of a bowling ball or a shoe, if you accidentally pick up the flowers or money and you throw that at him, you dont get any points, if you hit him, nor do you get the benefit of chasing him off the stage, which is what all the other projectiles do. In terms of the psychology of the game, the option of throwing money or flowers at donald trump would be scored as a mistake in this game, something you would do by accident, because it screws up your chances of winning. Psychologically, that might seem harsh and from an american perspective, that would be harsh, but this is a mexican game, and from a mexican perspective, thats not harsh at all. Thats the obvious reality. I mean, the mexican president , Enrique Pena Nieto, who hosted donald trump today, he apparently extended invitations to both Hillary Clinton and donald trump to come visit him in mexico, but donald trump accepted and the mexican president is not just an unpopular president for mexico. Hes the most radically unpopular president in mexico in 30 years. I mean, hes not quite down to cheney levels in terms of his Approval Ratings, but his Approval Ratings are terrible. Hes at 23 approval right now. 23 is terrible. But for perspective on donald trump, Donald TrumpsApproval Rating in mexico right now is two. 2 . I tried to find something in u. S. Approval ratings thats anywhere comparable to that, but theres nothing. No analogy in american politics or among American Public figures for how hated donald trump is in mexico. 2 Approval Rating. Just for comparison sake, if you poll americans on their opinions on the totalitarian dictatorship in north korea, a country that is starving its population in labor camps and threatening to turn the world into a nuclear sea of fire, if you ask the American People what they think of north korea, the Approval Rating is 9 . More than quadruple the mexican peoples Approval Rating for donald trump. Nothing in america has a 2 Approval Rating like donald trump does in mexico. Honestly, if you polled americans on sticking yourself in the eye with a red hot poker, it would probably poll better than how donald trump polls in mexico, which is not a surprise given the way that donald trump talks about mexico. So given that, why did mexicos president invite donald trump . Not just to mexico, but for this meeting and this big public joint appearance, why did he do that . Who knows . Thats like president obama being like, you know what, i think i might do a press conference with toe nail fungus. Can we get toe nail fungus up here . In terms of what youre trying to do to your own image, the views of the worlds a weird place. I dont know what explains this invitation from the perspective of the mexican president. I mean, honestly, to be fair, as a president ial candidate donald trump recently said he would invite the dictator of north korea, kim jongun, to visit the United States. So maybe thats the right political analogy. Maybe thats as close as we can get. But in terms of political strategy here, nobody knows why this happened. Nobody knew it was gonna happen until hours before it did. This joint appearance in mexico today ended up being a bizarre episode in stage setting for Donald Trumps promised policy speech tonight on illegal immigration. He gives policy speeches here and there. Very few policy speeches in primetime. Well take that speech tonight. There are a few things, though, at play, as we wait for the speech to begin. One is obviously the strangeness of this visit to mexico today, which was capped with donald trump sort of fairly humiliating admission at his press conference with the mexican president that even though mr. Trump has been doing a callin response with his braying audiences for a year now, where he yells, whos going to pay for the wall and the audience yells back, mexico. Even though hes been saying that every day on the campaign trail for a year, when he came face to face with the mexican government, donald trump admitted that he did not talk to him about paying for that wall. So thats an important part of whats going on tonight with the political dynamic heading into the speech. Theres the issue of the setting for the speech, arizona is a tough location for the speech. Well be talking about that later on this hour and into the evening. Policy wise, donald trump could not have been more hardline antiimmigrant during the republican primary and in a lot of his campaigning since. But in the last couple of weeks, trump has tried to benefit politically, from being much less clear, by honestly being a little incoherent on what he specifically wants to do on immigration policy. These last few weeks, if you have been trying to follow him literally, in terms of understanding his policy position on immigration, its been very confusing to figure out what it is and whether hes changing his position, what hes sticking to, what hes evolving on, what hes abandoning, what hes keeping, its hard to follow and i think it may be on purpose. If you say enough contradictory things on a subject like immigration, thats one way to avoid getting pinned down on the subject as either too hardlined to appeal to anybody but the nations biggots, or conversely, to squishy, to continue to appeal to the Republican Voters who got him this there. For an issue like immigration, incoherence can be smart politics. Spelling out a definitive coherent policy is going to cost you with a significant portion of the electorate. So dont get pinned down. Dont be specific, dont make sense. As we wait for this speech to start tonight, which should be within the next few minutes, politically, there is that risk that donald trump is facing here with a big with what theyre billing as a big policy speech on illegal immigration. Does he actually try to be clear about where he stands on immigration policy, if he really does care about this as policy, he will try to be clear . But if hes politically smart about this issue, my guess is, he will continue to make absolutely no sense at all. Joining us now, my friend, jose diazbala diazbalart. He was at the press Conference Today in mexico city. Great to see you. Thank you for being here. Great to see you, rachel. You know, rachel, sitting in that press conference, maybe 50 feet away from the president Enrique Pena Nieto and donald trump, and being here in the hours since that conference was held, i think im looking at the Salvador Dali movie when the arm opens and ants come out and the surrealism is expressed in many different ways. Here you have the president of mexico, facing a 23 support among the population, inviting donald trump, who has 2 support here in mexico. And then, they agree on a joint press conference which we were told was not going to be a press conference where questions could be asked, it was going to be a joint statement. So clearly the two sides worked on the wording of these two statements, right . And then, afterwards, donald trump just takes questions. And ive gotta tell you, sitting there 50 feet away from the president of mexico, who is not exactly used to these things happening, like sticking to schedules and structures, all of a sudden he starts talking about the wall and mexico, we didnt talk about who was going to pay for it, thank you very much, and they walk off, like arm in arm almost. And i looked at that and i was like, president of mexico is not reacting at all. You know [ speaking spanish ]. He was silent. Authorizes. Since then, all of the tweets from the foreign minister, saying that the president was strong and emphatic with donald trump in that meeting that the wall was nonnegotiable and even the president saying that he very clearly told donald trump in no Uncertain Terms that the wall would never be paid for by mexico. But its just two totally contradictory statements and also just the visuals of what happened in that room. I think the president of mexico was completely caught flatfooted, didnt expect questions to be asked by the media, and then i just think that afterwards, theyre like, how do we deal with this unexpected phenomena . How do we clean this up. Yes, yeah. Just slow this part of it down. We get donald Trump Campaigning all year long, saying, were going to build the wall, yay, were going to build the wall, whos going to pay for the wall, mexicos going to pay for the wall. Then its this, i laughed out loud at this moment in the press conference when he was asked about the wall, and he said, the payment for the wall, it didnt come up. We did not discuss that. As you pointed out, the mexican president had no response to that whatsoever. But then later put out further statement saying, we did discuss it, i made it clear that mexico will not pay for the wall. We now i mean, to me, that clearly seems like the mexican president is trying to clean up for something that was embarrassing to him, or trying to look tough in a way that this looked bad for him. Or donald trump was lying when he said it didnt come up, but it did come up but the conversation didnt go the way it was meant to. Do we have any clarity on whether they discussed this thing trump has been campaigning on for a year . No. Other than trump said one thing in front of at tthe president o mexico and he didnt refute it. Since then, you have a lot of movement coming out of the executive offices in mexico, of reaction, and people saying the president was totally dogmatic about the wall issue. Ill tell you, this is going to have repercussions here in mexico, rachel. Because already people were like, wondering why he had invited donald trump, and then after today, i wouldnt be surprised, rachel, if in the next couple days, maybe a week or two, mysteriously leaked video of that meeting showed up on National Network television here, which has a close relationship here with the president of mexico and the revolutionary party of that he represents. Because if the president of mexico was that dogmatic with donald trump and then is being in front of his nation, because this was shown to the country here today, told hes a liar, i wouldnt be surprised if that video shows up. Wow. I just wouldnt. Coincidentally, you know, like a freak of nature. Jose, do you have any sense, what is your guess about why the mexican president did invite trump . I mean, one theory is that he never thought that he would come and then he had to deal with the consequences once he decided to show up. When i look at what i understand about his political motivation, inviting somebody who is probably the least popular human being on earth among the mexican people, bringing that guy in for anything other than a dressing down, just makes no political sense to me at all. Why do you think he did it . I think that and i have to go and im speculating on things i have no evidence on, but i have to think that the president , pena nieto, felt that by bringing donald trump in here and actually saying, im looking forward to the future, and dressing him down, would be very beneficial when hes got such low Approval Ratings. But i think he wasnt expecting what donald trump did and said and how he did it. I think now theres backtrack. Jose diazbalart, thank you for being with us. I really appreciate it. Thank you, rachel. Always a pleasure to see you. You too. Jose is the saturday host of nbc nightly news and also host of lots and lots and lots of programming on telemundo. In october of this year, this past october, the u. S. Mens soccer team played a really important match against the Mexican National soccer team. And the tv network in mexico that had the rights for that match, you might remember, they aired a memorable ad in order