Politics

Updated at 7:25 p.m. ET.

A softer-edged Donald Trump huddled with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in a hastily arranged meeting in Mexico City on Wednesday. Both men pledged a commitment to strengthening the U.S.-Mexico relationship.

Trump said he had a "very substantive" conversation with Peña Nieto during which he reaffirmed the right of the U.S. to protect its borders and build a wall, but that his pledge to make Mexico pay for it didn't come up.

"We didn't discuss that," Trump said.

It's been two years since the Austin City Council was overhauled from 6 at-large council seats to 10 single member districts - plus the mayor. Now, 5 of those new seats are up for re-election.

To help voters learn more about incumbents running for re-election – and those challenging to replace them – KUT News and the Austin Monitor have set up candidate forums in each of the districts up for grabs in November.

Hours before he is slated to make a major policy speech on immigration Wednesday in Phoenix, Donald Trump is making a bold move — he will be meeting with Mexico's president.

He tweeted the news late Tuesday night:

"I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Peña Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow."

In Texas, there’s far more at stake in the 2016 election season than who takes the White House.

The state is battling with federal courts over the voter ID law. There’s dysfunction in the Texas Democratic and Republican parties. And demographic change is accelerating.

This week on the show: Republican Nominee Donald Trump was in Austin to raise money, tape a show with FOX News host Sean Hannity, and hold a rally before thousands of supporters. KUT's Ben Philpott will guide you through the day with stories and interview from the supporters and protestors following The Donald.

From the Texas Tribune: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says he is open to a "softening" in laws dealing with people who are in the country illegally, offering a pivot away from the hardline immigration views he espoused throughout the primaries. 

Trump made the remarks during a taping Tuesday afternoon of a town hall in Austin with Fox News host Sean Hannity. 

Donald Trump is holding a rally Tuesday in Austin, his first public event in Texas as the Republican presidential nominee.

Trump was already scheduled to visit Texas on Tuesday for private fundraisers in Fort Worth and Austin. His campaign announced Friday he will also attend the rally, which is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Luedecke Arena.

Just months after Paul Manafort was promoted to bring some structure to and scale up Donald Trump's presidential bid, the Washington insider has resigned from the campaign.

In a statement Friday morning, Trump said that Manafort offered his resignation. The candidate said he is "very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process."

"Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success," Trump continued.

In 2012, Greg Abbott caused a stir when he issued this warning to international election observers: Don’t set foot inside Texas polling places.

A new poll suggests there is at least one fellow Republican who could unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018: Rick Perry.

The former Texas governor would beat Cruz by 9 percentage points, according to the forthcoming survey from the Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling. Set to be released later today, the poll found Perry would get 46 percent of the vote and Cruz 37 percent, with 18 percent saying they are not sure whom they would support.

From the Texas Tribune: Former Gov. Rick Perry is defending Donald Trump's war of words with the family of a fallen Muslim soldier, saying the father "struck the first blow" against the Republican presidential nominee and is not above criticism in return. 

"In a campaign, if you’re going to go out and think that you can take a shot at somebody and not have incoming coming back at you, shame on you," Perry said in an interview Tuesday on CNN. 

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is leading Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by just 6 percentage points in deep-red Texas, according to a new poll. 

Trump gets 44 percent support to Clinton's 38 percent in the survey, which was done by Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling. Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson received 6 percent, while Green Party nominee Jill Stein got 2 percent.

FORT WORTH — Despite the state's request for an expedited ruling, a federal judge took no action Friday on a request to block the Obama administration's guidelines to accommodate transgender students.

U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor did not issue a ruling from the bench after an almost two-hour long hearing during which state attorneys — as part of a Texas-led, 13-state effort to block the guidelines — argued they unconstitutionally “hold a gun to the head” of states and school districts.

This week on the show: KUT's Ben Philpott and the Texas Tribune's Jay Root spent last week going over a few examples of Donald Trump's rocky road transitioning from GOP Primary Candidate to Republican Nominee.

But Hillary Clinton has had her own stumbles. So this week they'll review how she's doing as she tries to reach out to more than just the Democratic base.

And to help talk about how Republicans could take advantage of those slips, GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak joins the conversation.