headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >> good evening, i'm savannah guthrie, in for lester. from the opening moments of his presidential run, mexico has played a prominent role for donald trump from fiery accusations about criminals and rapists pouring over the border to bold promises to erect a wall and force mexico pay for it. fast forward to today when trump fast forward today when trump in a sure invitation of that country's president, standing side by side in a photo-op moment his advisors hoped would make trump come across presidential. gone was the confrontational rhetoric, no talk of a bill for the border wall. the question tonight, did trump make the most of an opportunity or miss one? we begin with miguel almaguer in mexico mexico city, donald trump's private meeting with president enrique pena nieto was said to be cordial. what trump called constructive. >> we had a very constructive substantive exchange of ideas. >> reporter: after extending an invitation to the presidential nominee, mexico's president seemed at times defiant, a point by point rebuttal of trump's harsh critique of mexico. he says mexicans deserve the respect of everyone, a sentiment trump even echoed. >> spectacular hard >> reporter: an about face when trump kicked off his campaign 14 months ago by vilifying mexico. >> they are not our friend, believe me, they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime and they're rapists. >> reporter: easing his stance on trade specifically nafta, trump was also pressed on his promised wall along the border. >> we didn't discuss who paid for the wall, we didn't discuss -- >> reporter: that in stark contrast to -- for the wall? >> mexico. >> reporter: when mexican officials had taken on trump previously, he fired back. >> that wall gets 10 feet higher. >> the embattled president pena nieto whose popularity in mexico hovers just above donald trump's, had likened the republican nominee's rhetoric to that of a dictator like adolph hitler or or bennetto mussolini, former president, vincente fox, going further on trump in his plan to >> i'm not going to pay for that [ bleep ] wall. >> reporter: with reports surfacing, negotiating for five day, the u.s. embassy that often provides briefing and support to candidates on foreign trips, this time staying on the sidelines. trump's team didn't reach out. trump's visit to mexico a gamble. >> he didn't know what the president of mexico would say. given the position he's in, he needs to gamble here or there. >> reporter: whether that gamble paid off is tonight up for tonight, mexico's president is now saying at the beginning with his conversation with mr. trump, he made it clear mexico would not pay for the wall. that's in contradictions to what mr. trump said during the press conference earlier today. of course, the presidential candidate is trying to look presidential here in mexico, while the mexican president is coming under fire for even inviting the the candidate into this country. savannah. >> miguel almaguer starting us off. a big day and a big night with donald trump delivering what's billed as a major speech on immigration. his big campaign issue and letting people know exactly where he stands on some issues, even some who support him. nbc's hallie jackson is learning new details about trump's high stakes speech. >> reporter: donald trump, heading back across the border as his mexico city meeting overshadows the biggest policy speech of his campaign so far on immigration. what to expect? clarity presumably immigrants still living here. >> does he still plan to round up and deport every last illegal immigrant starting on day one. >> you will hear how he plans to address the 11 million. >> reporter: trump said he's not softening up. >> i had people say it's a hardening. >> reporter: even some of his advisors argue for a more moderate stance on deportation. >> wholesale importation is a lo logistic l iebltty. >> reporter: he won't support in a path to citizenship, in contrast to hillary clinton. he tells the news trump will go after her hard tonight and call for better enforcement and tracking of visa over stays. >> we will build a wall. >> reporter: building the wall on the southern border has been trump's most consistent pledge. on this side of the border, his attacks on mexico and rhetoric on immigration have turned off many hispanic voters with democrats working to that includes voters like maria, a housekeeper in vegas. >> in more than five years that i vote, this is the top. i feel like we are under attack by donald trump. >> donald trump needs to be worried not only about his paltry numbers with latino voters, also how his position really affects independent and moderate republicans. those are voters who are also turned off by his hard line stance on immigration. >> reporter: while trump doesn't have much support from the hispanic community, a new poll just out shows nationally he's closing in on hillary clinton's lead. tonight, in phoenix, a key test, how and if he can reconcile his more diplomatic tone in mexico with the more fiery one we see from him on the campaign trail. savannah. >> hallie jackson, thank you. lots to chew on. with our political director, moderator of "meet the press," chuck todd. chuck, i think you agree this is a pretty high risk -- theater went, yes, i think it paid off for donald trump. and we will learn how it went after the speech in totality. it does matter, what is his position and what does he plan to do with the 11 or 15 million undocumented folks here. does he soften his stance and is his tone truly different how he wants to tackle immigration. that we learn tonight. as political theater in mexico, i have to say -- this is -- granted the bar is extremely low for trump when it comes to things like that. i thought he exceeded that bar and looked presidential. the question i had was what the heck was the mexican president thinking? i think he's in more hot water tonight than anybody. >> chuck, thank you very much. with many polls showing a tightening race now, hillary clinton was on the trail as well today making her pitch to veterans even as she continues to grapple with sinking favorability ratings. here's nbc's andrea to mexico. >> it certainly takes more than trying to make up for a year of insults and insinuations by dropping in on our neighbors for a few hours. >> reporter: as trump was grabbing the spotlight south of the border, clinton trying to win over veterans at home, arguing to the american legion trump is wrong about the military. >> i completely reject anyone, including my opponent, who calls the american military, and i quote, a >> i like what she had to say and i think she might just have my vote in november. >> i'm a 1,000% trump man. i just don't believe i can trust hillary. she lies too much. >> reporter: her pitch to veterans coming as clinton's favorability is dropping. a new poll showing more americans view her unfavorably than ever before. among women favorability down nine points. >> madam secretary, just a few words. >> how are you doing, andrea? madam secretary? >> reporter: clinton in public today for the first time in almost a week, spending most of her time with big donors, raking in almost $23 million in three days, paul mccartney and jimmy buffett and bon jovi. trump's speech certainly overshadowed clinton's speech today but she's hoping she can win over we move to the tropics now. a state of emergency declared in florida as a gathering storm gains speed. tropical storm hermine closes in and hurricane watches are up. that is not the only trouble brewing. there's also not one but two hurricanes headed towards hawaii, millions bracing for impact. we get all the latest from nbc's gabe gutierrez. >> reporter: tonight, what was once tropical depression number 9 has strengthened into tropical storm hermine, slogging towards florida's gulfcoast. it's anticipated to be 3 to 5 feet, however we have the risk of up to nine feet of storm surge. >> reporter: the system threatening to dump up to 15 inches of rain in parts of the sunshine state. 42 counties now under a state of emergency and some places travel already treacherous, a driver rescued after this car was swept off the road. nearly 11 years since florida's last hurricane. fred metzler is already pumping water out of his gulfport restaurant agh where it's not a swimming pool. >> reporter: hermine expected to continue to threaten the east coast with dangerous rip currents through the holiday weekend. half a world away, hawaii is bracing for hurricane madeline. windows boarded up, fema flying supplies to the big island and hurricane lester not far behind also tonight, noaa partnering with nasa to fly a global hawk drone, the same once used for the military for spy missions now capturing these images of the storm off florida's coast. >> it flies higher than traditional manned aircraft do and flies longer. we can stay on station over the storm a longer period of time. >> reporter: storm surge expected to be a major problem up florida's gulfcoast. right now, there are mandatory evacuations under way in parts of franklin county, in the florida panhandle and several coastal communities starting to flood even before this storm makes landfall. savannah. >> all right, gabe gutierrez, thank you. al roker is here with us, a real busy time in the tropics, i see a mess on your map there. >> that's right. we've been talking about this system two weeks and will be talking about it into next week. hermine is 150 miles southwest of tampa and 45 miles an hour winds and stationary but you see the rain bands already pushing out. we look for landfall sometime in the florida panhandle late thursday evening and continues up the we've gotten from boston, new york, philly, providence, washington, all have to worry about this system going into labor day weekend. we have hurricane watches from destin to the bay. look for hurricane watches, we have tropical storm watches in florida into georgia where we also have the risk of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes from savannah all the way down to tampa. rainfall amounts, 5-10, 12 inches of rain, but 7-8 inches all the way up to the carolinas and georgia. and we've got rip currents from port st. lucie all the way to nantucket. and, as we mentioned, we also have madeline 95 miles south of hilo, it stays to the south and lester to the north and hopefully they get spared. >> your plate is full, definitely, al. thank you very much. history was made high in the sky today with the first commercial flight from the u.s. to cuba in more than thawing relations between our two countries after ties were restored last year. nbc's kerry sanders take us aboard. >> reporter: jetblue flight 387 made history today. a celebrated takeoff in fort lauderdale. destination, santa clara, cuba. the last regularly scheduled direct service to the communist island, 1961. among the 150 paen 16-year-old sophia compton from chicago. >> i think of it as school. i think it's really historical. >> reporter: the flight today is really remarkable, you think back to 1962. right now, we're over the same waters where the tense relations between the united states and cuba led to a u.s. naval blockade of the communist island. making the landing at 11:57 a.m. today, that much more momentous. in the coming weeks, at least eight u.s. airlines will be flying across the u.s. to various cities here displacing the go to cuba and know it will be the equivalent of camping out. >> reporter: the cuban american martinez family traveled to cuba today to get married. >> we'll come again, maybe once a year. >> reporter: the cuban government hopes more americans will follow. kerry sanders, nbc news. santa clara, cuba. still ahead, nightmare flight. it happened yet again, a plane forced to make an emergency landing as violent turbulence leavho broken bones. and later, bags, checked, ticket, checked, destination, well, that's a mystery. would you want to take we're back with terrifying moments with passengers and crews on a flight from houston to london tonight. the plane had to make a stop at ocean. 12 people were injured including women and children. here is nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: on the ground in ireland, united flight 880 met by ambulance crews and medics tending to injured in the terminal. it was early in the morning when the bowing 767 ran into trouble over the atlantic. without warning, violent turbulence. >> a very huge drop in altitude, one right after the other. >> reporter: with at least a dozen people injured the pilots diverted to shannon, ireland. >> we just want to confirm the aircraft is norm and you're not are no control problems. >> there are a number of people waiting for you. >> reporter: while on the ground they tweeted emergency landing in ireland, a few people had broken bones. others described the scene on board. >> it was like one of those "star trek" episodes, you go through a field of rocks in the space and banging against evyt things. >> most of them that weren't buckled in, they hit the roof, the ceiling. there was one next to me that hit the floor and some injuries due to that. >> reporter: turbulence is not uncommon. in may, severe turbulence forced a flight to make an emergency landing in indonesia, 31 people injured, some seriously. clear air turbulence usually occurs when often use as a tailwind suddenly collides with very slow moving air. >> the problem for pilots, you can't see turbulence on radar. clear air turbulence is a high altitude phenomenon, because there are no thunderstorms associated with it, radar won't pick it up. >> reporter: in the u.s., the faa reports last year, 21 people were injured in severe unexpected violent turbulence, it's why flight attendants and pilots remind all of us to always keep those seatbelts fastened. >> tom costello, thank you. when we come back, a deadlocked supreme court handed down a ruling this morning that could have a major impact on in a 4-4 tie, the court refused to reinstate a controversial law requiring north carolina vote to show a photo id. a lower court had struck that law down ruling it was making it harder for african-americans to vote. that lower court decision now stands. big change in brazil tonight. just over a week after the end to the olympics in rio, that country's president, dilma rousseff has been ousted by the managing the budget. it has been a major drama in breezy for a year now, culminating in brazil's vote, which she called a coup and repeatedly denied those charges. a woman got a surprise when she looked up from her phone and came face to face with a black bear. she was sitting in her driveway when she suddenly noticed the unexpected visitor inches away. she caught it on camera sniffing her before her son came and scared it off. wildlife officials released that video as a warning to the public and now trying to find and trap that bear. when we come back, finally for us tonight, all the fun of going on vacation with none of the stress of having to are embracing this new kind of get away. all the arrangements are made for you but one key piece of the mystery is left until you arrive at the airport. >> reporter: they're heading off on vacation and they have no idea where they're going. >> i really wanted to go somewhere with alex but i had no way and no time to plan. >> reporter: they're trying a new travel start-up called "pack leaves the destination a surprise. go online, set a budget, dates and type of trip. >> if you like spas or kraft beer, pull into restaurants, and tell us anything else we need to no. >> reporter: then pack up and go gets to work. a week before departure, clients get an e-mail with the weather forecast and what to pack and one thing to save for later, an envelope to open at the airport. >> so where do you think you're going? >> we got the weather of where we're going so we could pack appropriate clothes. >> we know the city is very scenic, to bring a camera. we know we had to bring hiking shoes and >> reporter: other travelers have tracked everywhere from austin for barbecue to nashville for brewery, chicago for first year anniversary, san diego and new orleans and minneapolis. the start-up says it's not just for millennials. >> we've had couples celebrating 70th birthdays or 30th anniversaries or women best friends for 45 your final two guesses? >> nashville. >> portland, maine. >> reporter: portland, maine! >> boom! >> reporter: that's amazing. >> no cheating! >> reporter: away they go with a custom iteniary in hand. >> this is nice, so exciting. so many great places to eat. >> reporter: a surprise get way that make this journey as donald trump making a rush visit to the valley. he's set to deliver a major policy visit on immigration. >> this comes after a trip to mexico city to meet with that president. trump arrived about 10 mince ago. a live look from inside you can see sheriff joe arpaio a strong trump supporter on the stage. one of several speakers scheduled to make a presentation before trump takes the staining probably around 7 -- stage probably around 7:00 p.m.. >> we have team coverage of the rally tonight but begin with a preview of what we can expect to hear from him tonight. >>reporter: sheriff joe arpaio on the stage right now. sheriff joe arpaio a rock star a gigantic hall that holds 17,000. it's about one-third full. several thousands people here right now. joe arpaio on a more somber note. several parents of young people telling their stories. that's part of the setup in a few minutes, rudy, gulianni taking the stage. if you saw him at the republican national convention, you saw riled up. arizona is the state that made immigration put immigration in the national headlines several years ago with sb1070 and had major hard line border supporters here. in just a few minutes, we expect to hear from rudy and donald trump out lining what he would do as president on the issue of immigration. back to you. >> all right, brahm.