Donald Trump
Donald TrumpReuters

American media reaction to Trump's recent meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto was mixed in its interpretation of the visit.

Speaking on Wednesday on “Special Report with Bret Baier,” syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer saw the visit as a success for Trump's campaign.

“He took a risk, and he pulled it off," said Krauthammer, adding that "the big negative about Trump... is the fact that it's hard to imagine him as president. Now, here he is standing on the world stage with a world leader. This is a big step.”

“He not only held his own... he sort of dominated… At the very end when they took questions, it was Trump who took charge,” Krauthammer continued. “He's sitting in the palace of the president of Mexico. This never happens. Normally, it's the host who picks the journalist. Trump took charge naturally, walked off the stage as the dominant guy.”

Other reactions, however, were more negative; the LA Times, for example, noted the "dismay" and "outrage" that Trump had caused Mexicans with his visit, and quoted Mexican leftist opposition leader Miguel Barbosa, who said of Trump: “You’re coming to take your picture with the very people you’ve offended[...] Get out!"

The two leaders, for their part, made an effort to downplay their differences during the meeting.

“We all share a common interest in keeping our hemisphere safe, prosperous and free,” Trump said after the meeting, according to Bloomberg News.

Pena Nieto said that the conversation with Trump was “open and constructive.”

“We may not agree on various topics, but your presence here shows that we have much in common,” the Mexican president was quoted as having said to Trump. “The next president will find in my government a partner.”

Politico, which has hammered Trump in much of its election coverage, grudgingly acknowledged Trump's Mexico visit as a win for the Republican, calling it "a well-executed bit of campaign stagecraft by the GOP nominee."

Conservative columnist Byron York, who just a week ago slammed the Trump campaign for making "a mess of immigration" policy, hailed Trump's "Mexico gamble" as a "big win".

"[I]t was a big win — a very big win — for Trump. Going into a meeting with the potential for disaster — who knew how Pena Nieto would receive the world's most controversial presidential candidate or what embarrassments might lie ahead? — Trump came out of the meeting looking very much like a potential President of the United States. Standing beside the Mexican leader in front of a green-gray granite wall reminiscent of the United Nations, Trump presented the picture of a statesman."