Washington (CNN) Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Thursday canceled a meeting with US President Donald Trump that had been set for next week after renewed tensions erupted over Trump's plan to build a wall on the border. 
 
 "This morning we have informed the White House that I will not attend the meeting scheduled for next Tuesday with the POTUS," Peña Nieto tweeted. 
 
 Earlier Thursday morning, Trump had tweeted that it would be better to skip the meeting if Peña Nieto continued to insist Mexico would not pay for the wall -- something the Mexican leader had said as recently as Wednesday evening. 
 
 "If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting," Trump tweeted and in an earlier tweet he noted the US's trade deficit with Mexico and what he said were the American job losses caused by NAFTA. 
 
 The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers... 
 
 of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting. 
 
 Trump spoke about the cancellation during remarks at a gathering of congressional Republicans in Philadelphia. 
 
 Trump said that he and the Mexican president had mutually agreed to scrap their planned get together, and he repeated his position that the US won't fund the wall. 
 
 "Unless Mexico will treat the US fairly, with respect, such a meeting is fruitless, and I want to go a different route," Trump told House and Senate GOP lawmakers. "I have no choice." 
 
 "Border security is a serious, serious issue and a national problem," Trump said. "Most illegal immigration is coming from our Southern border." 
 
 On Wednesday night, Peña Nieto had said at that time he did not see a need to scrap the get together -- but he strongly reiterated that his country wouldn't fund any border wall, which Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday would cost $12-$15 billion 
 
 "President Trump's insistence that Mexico will pay for the wall has once again just been proven as delusional fiction by the Mexican President," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. "The wall is a multi-billion dollar boondoggle in the making, and Republicans should be embarrassed about their brazen hypocrisy in enabling it." 
 
 "Mexico does not believe in walls. I've said time again; Mexico will not pay for any wall," the Mexican president said in a video statement posted to Twitter and translated by CNN from Spanish. 
 
 The back-and-forth between the two leaders began last year during the first days of the Trump campaign when he called some Mexicans entering the US criminals and rapists and tensions lingered throughout the 2016 contest. They escalated sharply over the last 24 hours when Trump took executive action on Wednesday to begin the process of erecting a wall. 
 
 The President announced that move while a high-level Mexican delegation was visiting the White House -- the first foreign representatives to come since Trump took office -- for meetings with top officials, including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and adviser Jared Kushner. 
 
 One member of the delegation, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, who had led talks between his government and the Trump transition team, was in his car on his way to meetings at the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday when he suddenly decided he would not attend. 
 
 "We will work to schedule a future meeting and will continue to keep the lines of communication and partnership open," said DHS Spokeswoman Gillian Christensen. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Trump signs executive actions on border wall Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Trump signs executive actions on border wall 02:40 
 
 In his video address, Peña Nieto also said he had ordered government agencies to step up protection for immigrants. 
 
 "I've asked for the minister of Foreign Relations to re-enforce protection measures to our citizens," he said. He added that the 50 Mexican consulates in the US will be used to defend the rights of immigrants in the country and issued a call to action to legislators and civic organizations to help immigrants. 
 
 Peña Nieto closed his message by saying Mexico offers and expects respect. "Mexico offers its friendship to the people of the United States and expresses its wish to arrive at agreements with its government, deals that will be in favor of Mexico and the Mexicans," he said. 
 
 Earlier Wednesday, Trump signed two executive orders directing construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border, boosting border patrol forces, and increasing the number of immigration enforcement officers who carry out deportations. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Mexican officials who arrived Wednesday had been expected to lay the groundwork for Peña Nieto's visit next week, which Mexican diplomats had seen as an important opportunity to try to move past the anti-Mexico rhetoric Trump used during the campaign and a chance to put the relationship back on track. 
 
 "There is ... frustration with our government and ourselves that we have not been able to tell the story of this important relationship," a Mexican diplomat told CNN ahead of the delegation's visit. "There are a lot of stereotypes of Mexicans in the US, but there are also stereotypes of Americans in Mexico. It is in the interest of both governments to explain what this relationship is and what we can do together." 
 
 In a Monday speech, Peña Nieto said his government is prepared to negotiate with the US if Mexico's national sovereignty is respected. He laid out economic integration and respect for the rights of migrants and the money they send home as his nation's key negotiating points. 
 
 "Neither confrontation nor submission. Dialogue is the solution," Peña Nieto said. 
 
 Trump has suggested some of the $25 billion in annual remittances that migrants return home would be retained to pay for the border wall. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Trump: Mexico to reimburse US for wall Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Trump: Mexico to reimburse US for wall 02:54 
 
 Trump flew to Mexico City during his campaign to meet Peña Nieto and said they discussed a wall Trump has vowed to build on the US southern border, but not his demand that Mexico pay for it -- an assertion the Mexican president later disputed. 
 
 "At the start of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall," Peña Nieto tweeted, after their meeting, which was widely viewed as a public relations disaster for Peña Nieto. ||||| Enrique Peña Nieto repeats his refusal to fund border wall but leaves open the question of contentious 31 January trip to meet new US president 
 
 Mexico's president 'will not pay for any wall' – but may still visit Trump 
 
 Mexico’s president has once again declared that “Mexico will not pay for any wall” but stopped short of cancelling a visit to Washington after Donald Trump signed executive orders that include building the border barrier. 
 
 Enrique Peña Nieto reiterated that Mexico would not put a single peso towards the new US president’s signature project. In a televised address he said: “I regret and reject the decision of the US to build the wall.” 
 
 But Peña Nieto did not cancel a trip to Washington – a move many in Mexico had demanded after Trump signed an executive order to start plans for fencing off the frontier. 
 
 
 
 “I have said time and time again, Mexico will not pay for any wall,” Peña Nieto told the nation in his short video statement on Wednesday night. 
 
 “Mexico reaffirms its friendship with the people of the United States and its willingness to reach agreements with its government.” 
 
 He left up in the air the question of the 31 January meeting with Trump in the White House – saying his decision would depend on an evaluation by a team already in Washington and officials at home. 
 
 Mexicans reacted to the president’s statement with confusion. Many in the political class had called on Peña Nieto to cancel his meeting after Trump signed the executive order. 
 
 A senior government official told the Associated Press that the Mexican president was “considering” calling off the visit to Washington, but no decision had been taken. 
 
 On Thursday, Trump appeared to be goading his Mexican counterpart into pulling out of the visit, saying on Twitter: “If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.” 
 
 Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a leftist former presidential candidate, told an audience in Mexico City: “If a [Mexican] presidential visit is being announced, he will be received there by having the door slammed in his face. 
 
 “I think the least we can do in these conditions would be not to show up, cancel the visit to the United States and find a dignified position for Mexico.” 
 
 Peña Nieto has encountered sustained criticism for failing to come up with a decisive strategy to deal with Trump’s combative policies. 
 
 Trump repeatedly promised a border wall throughout his election campaign but Mexico’s political elite appeared to be hoping that the billionaire-turned-populist politician had been bluffing. 
 
 
 
 Trump's wall: Mexican construction firms likely to be biggest winners Read more 
 
 That hope proved misplaced on Wednesday, when the US president signed the order, proclaiming: “A nation without borders is not a nation.” 
 
 Trump claimed that “we’re in the middle of a crisis on our southern border”, citing an “unprecedented surge” of illegal immigrants from Central America that was harming both the US and Mexico. 
 
 The likely effectiveness of the planned wall is fiercely disputed. More Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico from the US than have migrated to the US since the end of the 2007-08 financial crisis, according to the Pew Research Center. Research shows that immigrants are more law-abiding than non-immigrants. 
 
 Peña Nieto has consistently rejected Trump’s suggestion that Mexico will pay for the border wall and promised to put Mexico first in any negotiations. 
 
 
 
 But analysts say the president has few strong options in confronting an American administration considered the most hostile to Mexico since the Mexican-American war of the 1840s – in which Mexico was forced to cede its northern territory. 
 
 Peña Nieto – whose personal popularity ratings currently languish at 12% (the lowest in history) – appears to be caught in an impossible situation: paying for the wall would stoke domestic outrage. Not paying could provoke problems with Trump’s team, however. 
 
 “The whole thing is lose-lose. The only question is how much,” said Esteban Illades, editor of the Mexican magazine Nexos. 
 
 Trump’s executive order to build a wall along the nearly 2,000-mile US-Mexico border came on the same day Mexico’s foreign minister Luis Videgary and economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo met with senior Trump administration officials. 
 
 “I would cancel the meeting [with Trump] or postpone it as a message that we’re not going to do what they want, that we’re not going to play their game,” Agustín Basave, ex-leader of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution party, told the newspaper Reforma. “I would start by saying things like we are going to review Mexico’s cooperation in the areas of security and migration.” 
 
 
 
 Others were even more direct, including ex-president Vicente Fox – who has walloped Trump with profanity-laden tweets for more than a year. 
 
 Vicente Fox Quesada (@VicenteFoxQue) Sean Spicer, I've said this to @realDonaldTrump and now I'll tell you: Mexico is not going to pay for that fucking wall. #FuckingWall 
 
 Let's raise our voices against this dictator, Donald Trump | Vicente Fox Read more 
 
 Mexican officials have expressed hopes of salvaging Nafta, which facilitates more than $500bn annually in cross-border trade, though Guajardo told Mexican TV earlier this week that Mexico would consider walking away from the deal. 
 
 Canadian officials have also mused about abandoning Mexico to forge a bilateral deal with the US if necessary, leaving Mexico’s increasingly export-oriented economy in a bind. 
 
 “If we’re going for something that is less than what we have now, it doesn’t make sense to stay in,” Guajardo told the Televisa network. 
 
 Until recently, such a posture would have been unthinkable as Mexico shifted its economy from one so closed that smuggled candy was sold in itinerant markets to one so open it has more than 40 free-trade deals with countries around the world. 
 
 But moving away from the massive US market has proved difficult for Mexico, which sends 80% of its exports north. Peña Nieto told the nation Monday that Mexico would seek stronger ties with countries in the hemisphere, but promptly cancelled his participation in a summit of Latin American and Caribbean countries. 
 
 Trump's Mexico bashing may backfire if peso plunge forces poor migrants north Read more 
 
 “The cancelation was given in such short notice that it raises suspicions that Peña Nieto would not want to meet with other leaders who would want a strongly worded statement against Trump,” Illades said. 
 
 Peña Nieto has promised to impose conditions on any negotiation with the US, including addressing issues such as smuggled guns streaming across the border, arming drug cartels, and Mexico’s efforts to detain and deport migrants who transit its territory in attempts to reach the US. 
 
 But the president is playing a weak hand, while his approval rating of just 12% is hampering his attempts at fomenting unity in a time of crisis. 
 
 “There is unity; people do not like Trump,” says Rodolfo Soriano-Núñez, a sociologist in Mexico City, “but there is this sense that Trump is not the real problem, rather trust in a presidency ridden with scandals.” 
 
 Additional reporting by David Smith
– Tension between President Trump and Mexico over his border wall plans was probably inevitable, though not everybody expected it to flare up before his administration was a week old. After Trump signed an executive order Wednesday and promised to start building the wall within months, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto told his country in a televised address that Mexico "does not believe in walls" and will not pay for it, no matter what Trump says, the BBC reports. "I regret and condemn the decision of the United States to continue construction of a wall that, for years, has divided us instead of uniting us," he said. In other coverage: Peña Nieto said Mexico still offers its friendship to the US, but he didn't confirm whether he plans to go ahead with his Jan. 31 meeting with Trump at the White House, the Guardian reports. Senior government officials said late Wednesday that the Mexican leader is thinking about calling it off. CNN reports that Peña Nieto said he would wait for an evaluation from Mexican officials in the US before confirming the visit to the US. He also said he had ordered government agencies, including the 50 Mexican consulates in the US, to step up protection for immigrants. The Washington Post looks at five major challenges the wall project will face, including rough terrain and the fact that most land along the border in Texas is privately owned. In Mexico, people are furious and are calling for a stern response to Trump's plans, reports the New York Times. "It's like we are Charlie Brown and they are Lucy with the football," says former foreign minister Jorge Castaneda. "Peña is a weak president in a weak country at a weak moment, but he has to find a way to get some official backbone." Historians say the last president to anger Mexico this much was Calvin Coolidge, who threatened to invade "Soviet Mexico" in the 1920s. The Los Angeles Times looks at the details of the border wall project and other immigration-related actions Trump unveiled Wednesday. His plan to withhold federal grants from "sanctuary cities" like LA is expected to start legal battles that will last for years.