![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2018\/03\/08\/world\/08kushner1\/merlin_135149418_99b4a91d-459f-4d26-a3fe-dd829f0d7282-master768.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n<\/a><\/span>Credit<\/span>Jose Mendez\/Rex, via European Pressphoto Agency<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
MEXICO CITY \u2014 Jared Kushner, President Trump\u2019s son-in-law and senior adviser, met with Mexico\u2019s president on Wednesday, arriving just weeks after a planned meeting between the nations\u2019 leaders fell apart because of a\u00a0bitter phone dispute<\/a>\u00a0over Mr. Trump\u2019s proposed border wall.<\/p>\n Mr. Kushner\u2019s meeting with President Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto was meant to soothe tensions. Plans for the two presidents to meet have been\u00a0abruptly canceled<\/a>\u00a0at least twice since Mr. Trump took office, and the relationship between their countries is suffering its roughest patch in decades.<\/p>\n But the encounter between Mexico\u2019s president and Mr. Kushner, a political newcomer whose\u00a0top-secret security clearance was stripped<\/a>\u00a0last month, underscored the profound shift in approach that the Trump administration has taken with Mexico, and with the region more broadly.<\/p>\n Officials announced the visit less than a day before it happened, offering no guidance on what would be discussed.<\/p>\n Beyond that, Mr. Kushner, who also met with Mexico\u2019s foreign minister, did not invite the American ambassador \u2014 Roberta S. Jacobson, a diplomat with more than 30 years of experience in the region \u2014 to join him in the meetings, according to a senior American official who was not authorized to speak publicly.<\/p>\n