Trump claims his father was born in Germany - but he is wrong
US President Donald Trump has once again claimed that his father, Fred Trump, was born in Germany, despite this not actually being true.
Speaking during an Oval Office press briefing on Tuesday (3 March), the 79-year-old Republican seemingly confused the birthplaces of his father and paternal grandfather - something he has repeatedly done in the past.
The claim came during the meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, when Trump was asked about the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran on Saturday (28 February), which has since set off several retaliatory strikes across the region.
Trump took the opportunity to hit out at the United Kingdom, Spain and other countries' lack of 'cooperation'.
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He declared that Spain 'has been terrible', and went as far as to threaten stopping all trade with the European nation.
"And by the way," the president added: "I’m not happy with the UK either."
Referring to the Chagos Islands ordeal, Trump slammed: "The UK has been, very, very, uncooperative with that stupid island they have, that they gave away and took a 100-year lease."
"They ruin relationships. It’s a shame," he went on, speaking of the UK. "And I love that country. I love it. My mother was born there."
Trump's mother, Mary Anne Macleod Trump, was born in Scotland and immigrated to the States as a teenager.
"My father was born — he knows all about my father," the politician continued while he gestured to Merz. "My father was born there. There are places that you sort of automatically very, very — feel warmly about."
Fred was actually born in the Bronx, New York City, not Germany.
It's Trump's grandparents on his father's side, Frederick Trump and Elizabeth Christ Trump, who immigrated to the US from Germany.
As we say, yesterday's claims weren't the first time Trump has made such a mix-up.
He also made the claim in a CBS News interview back in 2018, as well as in another press briefing in 2019, saying at the time, per the Guardian: "My father is German — was German — born in a very wonderful place in Germany, so I have a very great feeling for Germany."
Trump also echoed the incorrect statement in a 2020 Fox News interview.
According to a German historian, as cited by the Guardian, Frederick left Germany for the United States in 1885, driven by poverty.
He is said to have run businesses serving miners during the Gold Rush in the American West.
In 1901, he went back to Germany, met Elisabeth, and married her, and the pair soon returned to the US together.
In 1905, he tried to resettle in Germany after Elisabeth grew homesick, but the authorities expelled him when it emerged he had skipped compulsory military service and barred him from coming back.
The pair then reportedly sailed to Pennsylvania, the Guardian reports. Elisabeth was three months pregnant with Fred Trump at the time, and he was born later that year in New York City.
Topics: Donald Trump, Europe, News, Politics, US News, World News, Iran, Israel
Rhiannon Ingle