Donald Trump Confused the Audience by Wrongly Claiming His Father Is from Germany

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump held a press conference at the White House where he had a briefing with NATO. While addressing Germany’s financial contributions to NATO, the politician uttered a wrong claim.

Trump confused the audience by saying his father was born in Germany instead of the US.

President Donald Trump, 72, had a briefing with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg this week. The meeting was attended by a number of reporters.

At one point, the president shared his frustrations about Germany’s poor financial contributions to NATO. He stated, “Germany, honestly, is not paying their fair share.”

However, he quickly added that he had “great respect” for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and “great respect for the country” as a whole. Trump then made a false claim about his father, Frederick Christ Trump.

He stated:

“My father is German, was German. And born in a very wonderful place in Germany, so I have a great feeling for Germany.”

Trump’s late father and real estate developer was actually born in the Bronx, New York. The video of his wrong utterances quickly went viral due to a tweet from White House press veteran Tommy Christopher.

It’s believed that the president actually meant to reference his grandfather, Friedrich Trump. The politician’s grandfather was born in Kallstadt, Germany before emigrating to the US in 1885.

He arrived in New York City but settled in Seattle, Washington. Trump’s grandfather bought a restaurant in November 1891 and become a US citizen in October 1892.

Many years later, he tried to return to his home country to resettle because he was homesick, however, he was expelled in 1905 for emigrating illegally. He was forced to return to the US and ordered not to return to Germany after it was found that he’d failed to perform mandatory military service.

Upon his return on a ship, he was accompanied by his pregnant wife, Elisabeth Trump, who was three months pregnant, and she gave birth to Trump’s father. Records show that the president has now falsely stated that his father was born in Germany on three different occasions.

Last July at a NATO summit in Brussels he said, “I have great respect for Germany; my father is from Germany.” He added, “Both of my parents are from the E.U., despite the fact they don’t treat us well on trade.”

Later that month, he again made the same mistake while speaking to the press about the European Union. Trump said, “Maybe the thing that is most difficult — don’t forget both my parents were born in E.U. sectors, okay?”

The politician continued, “I mean, my mother was Scotland, my father was Germany. And — you know I love those countries.” He was correct about his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, who was a Scottish immigrant.

Roland Paul, a historian from Rhineland-Palatinate, was the one who found the royal decree issued to Trump’s grandfather ordering him to leave Germany and never come back. The decree stated that he was to leave Bavaria within eight weeks.