U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto give a press conference at the Los Pinos residence in Mexico City, Mexico, August 31, 2016.
U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto give a press conference at the Los Pinos residence in Mexico City, Mexico, August 31, 2016. Reuters/Henry Romero

US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto have gone on Twitter war just a day after a civil meeting in Mexico on Wednesday. The two are at loggerheads about who would pay for the still non-existent wall that Trump has repeatedly promised to build if he becomes the US president.

Trump is perhaps one of the most hated men in Mexico after the tycoon mogul claimed that the country sends drug dealers, rapists and criminals to the US. And to stop undocumented migrants from entering America, Trump has promised to build a wall along the border of the two countries. Mexico, as he boasted, would pay for the building of the wall.

On Wednesday, he went to Mexico at the behest of Peña Nieto, who also invited Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, at a later date. Trump met with the president, and the two later held a dual media appearance to answer questions about their meeting. A seemingly subdued Trump claimed that they did not discuss who would pay for the wall.

Peña Nieto, however, belied Trump’s claim, tweeting that they have indeed discussed the wall from the start, and he made it clear to Trump that Mexico would not pay for it.

Not to be outdone, Trump also tweeted, not in direct reply to the Mexican leader, but it’s assumed that he was reacting to Peña Nieto’s tweet.

Peña Nieto wouldn’t want Trump to have the last word, and so he quoted the aspiring president and reiterated what he said. “I repeat what I personally said, Mr Trump: Mexico will never pay for the wall,” he wrote in Spanish.

Trump, as of the time of writing, hasn’t responded yet. He, however, told a crowd in Arizona, US, hours after their meeting that Mexico would foot the bill “100 percent.”

As to why Peña Nieto even invited Trump in their country when he had previously compared the former “The Apprentice” reality star to Adolf Hitler, the Mexican leader claimed he wanted to stress to Trump the respect that Mexicans deserve.

In an opinion piece he wrote in Spanish in El Universal newspaper, he told Trump that Mexicans were deeply hurt by the American candidate’s pronouncements about them. Peña Nieto emphasised the virtues of his people, saying Mexicans are honest, hard workers and brave. The president claimed Trump reacted positively.

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