Vicente Fox: Former Mexican President apologizes for Trump invitation from President Enrique Peña N

Donald J. Trump is heading to Mexico on Wednesday to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto, but one of the Mexican leader’s predecessors had a different message for the Republican presidential nominee: You are not welcome here.

Vicente Fox, Mexico’s president from 2000 to 2006, said on Wednesday that the invitation from Mr. Peña Nieto was a mistake and that Mr. Trump should never be trusted in the country because of the way he has demonized its people.

“He is not welcome to Mexico,” Mr. Fox told CNN. “We don’t want him. We reject his visit.”

Mr. Fox has been critical of Mr. Trump’s plan to build a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico and on Wednesday he shrugged off recent signs of Mr. Trump softening his plans to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants.

“You cannot trust a guy like this,” Mr. Fox said. “How can we grant confidence and support to ideas that change everyday? He cynically continues to disregard his own people and disregard Mexicans.”

Despite Mr. Trump’s promises that Mexico will pay for his border wall, Mr. Fox vowed in February that it would never happen. He also called Mr. Trump a “false prophet” who was misleading his followers.

On Wednesday, Mr. Fox expressed disbelief that Mr. Peña Nieto would invite Mr. Trump for the private meeting. He suggested that Mr. Trump was only coming as part of a “desperate” strategy to improve his sagging poll numbers and in explicit terms he urged Americans not to vote for him.

“I cannot envision him sitting in that chair, that was the chair of President Washington, President Jefferson, President Kennedy, President Reagan,” Mr. Fox said. “He doesn’t know how to run a nation. He doesn’t even know how to run a business.”

As he prepared to travel to Mexico, Mr. Trump responded to Mr. Fox’s attacks, noting on Twitter that the former Mexican president once suggested that he pay the country a visit.

Mexico's former president Vicente Fox slammed the expected meeting Wednesday between Donald Trump and the country's current president, saying "I apologize for our president taking this step forward" and calling it "a desperate move."

Fox lit into Enrique Peña Nieto on CNN's "New Day" for inviting Trump to the country for a high-profile meeting, warning Peña Nieto that the meeting was a serious political risk, "I don't understand what's going on here, and I really apologize for our president taking this step forward," Fox told CNN's Chris Cuomo. "I will not understand unless there's an explanation to it."

"I think President Peña (Nieto) is taking an enormous political risk by hosting Trump. If he's perceived as going soft on Trump, it will hurt him greatly. He will even be considered like a traitor because we don't accept to be offended like we just heard, and it should not happen that he comes here with a smile on his face. I think this is a big mistake on the part of President Peña."

Fox has made a name for himself as one of Trump's roughest critics. He called Trump a "false prophet" and said the GOP nominee heralded the return "to the era of the ugly American" during an interview in May. Most famously, Fox cursed on live television while talking about Trump and his proposed border wall in February, telling Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo, "I'm not going to pay for that f---ing wall."

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"It's a very opportunistic move," Fox told CNN Wednesday of the coming meeting. "I hope US public opinion, US citizens can see this and finally, finally see what is behind Trump -- this false prophet that is just cheating everybody. It's a desperate move and I don't see how it can work at all."

Trump responded to Fox's comments, taking to Twitter to say, "Former President Vicente Fox, who is railing against my visit to Mexico today, also invited me when he apologized for using the 'f bomb.'"

Fox answered Trump's tweet with his own, saying, "I invited you to come and apologize to all Mexicans. Stop lying! Mexico is not yours to play with, show some respect."

Despite the invitation, Nieto has also been a vocal critic of Trump throughout the his rise to the Republican presidential nomination. He has flatly rejected Trump's suggestion that Mexico would pay for a border wall, and even compared Trump to dictators like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in comments from March.

The Mariana DAngelo Editorial Group.