Donald Trump's meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto not only shows off the GOP nominee's "leadership," but may even reset relations between the two nations, ex-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Wednesday.
In remarks on CNN's "New Day," Lewandowski, now a commentator for the network, said the Trump-Peña meeting will cast Trump in both a favorable political and business light.
"I think it's about leadership," Lewandowski said of the sit-down between Trump and Peña Nieto. "It's meeting with the head of another foreign country. It's showing it's a close business partner."
"Obviously he's talked about renegotiating NAFTA and the bad trade deals America has had," he added. "What he's said on so many occasions is the Mexican leaders are smarter than us. They out-negotiate the American people."
But Lewandowski said his Wednesday meeting will let him say, "'If I'm the president of the United States, we're going to have an understanding, we're going to work fairly together, but we're going to work well together.'"
Pressed on whether Trump could change some of his harsher rhetoric about Mexico, Lewandowski allowed, "Sure, I think that could happen."
"We've seen other governors from our country meet with the governor of Mexico," he said, noting a 2014 visit to Mexico by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie .
"It's very, very possible that Mr. Trump goes down there, meets the president, and says, 'hey, look, we have more things in common than we have apart. Let's find a way that we can work together.'"
And that could include the building of a border wall, he added.
"Donald Trump could see the president of Mexico and say, 'this is an issue we're not going to change from. I'm going to build a wall, and 69 days from today I'm going to be elected president of the United States.'" Lewandowski said. "'We can work together and find a way that Mexico can start paying for that wall. It is going to be built. It's 2,000 miles. We don't need to do all 2,000 miles, but that wall is going to get built.'
"He's never deviated from it," Lewandowski said.
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