Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced Tuesday he will be making a last-second trip to Mexico City to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, hours before he is scheduled to make a major immigration speech in Phoenix.

"I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Peña Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow," Trump tweeted. Nieto confirmed the visit, albeit without a specific time.

The Mexican president extended invitation to Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton last Friday, according to the Washington Post. Mexican officials reportedly warned Trump's team about how difficult the impromptu trip would be - mainly because of security concerns and anti-Trump sentiment nationals may share - but Trump was undeterred. Trump's tweet came minutes before an evening rally in Everett, Wash. While Trump never mentioned the Mexico trip, or border wall proposals that have been the cornerstone of his campaign, he did reiterate the dangers associated with open borders. "We are going to secure our border and stop the drugs from coming in and destroying our country," Trump said.

Building Up to Trump's Visit

Trump launched his campaign in June 2015 with a blanket statement saying Mexico was sending "rapists" and "criminals." He doubled-down on his anti-immigration stance by hypothesizing about a deportation task force and vowing to reinforce the U.S-Mexico wall at the Peña Nieto administration's expense. Last March, disavowed Trump's proposals, likened his rise to prominence to that of dictators Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. "There have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations in the history of humanity," Peña Nieto told Excelsior. "That's how Mussolini got in, that's how Hitler got in -- they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis." Peña Nieto later backtracked while attending June's North American Leaders' Summit in Ottawa alongside President Obama and Canada President Justin Trudeau. In July, Peña Nieto told CNN "there is no way that Mexico can pay [for] a wall like that," saying he disagreed with Trump's characterization of Mexicans. He first hinted at meeting Trump earlier this month, if Trump won on Election Day. Trump has struggled over the last week to clarify whether he is softening or strengthening his anti-immigration stance. Fox News personality Sean Hannity hosted a Trump town hall last week in which he asked the real estate magnate if he would change any of his immigration policies. "There certainly can be a softening because we're not looking to hurt people, we want people - we have some great people in this country," Trump said. In the same interview, Trump said he would be open to meeting Peña Nieto.

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