Featured Image Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Germany, US News
Callum Jones
Donald Trump has sparked a bit of confusion online after claiming his father was born in Germany despite Fred Trump actually being born in Bronx, New York City.
The president sat down in front of press in the Oval Office on Tuesday (March 3) alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The meeting, which had been in the diary for a long while, was perhaps unsurprisingly dominated by the ongoing situation in the Middle East after the US and Israel attacked Iran in a joint military operation.
Trump was hugely critical of the UK and its Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during the press conference, after Britain initially denied its ally to use of its military bases for the strikes on Iran.
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Starmer did change his mind on the matter and the US is now permitted to use the bases for defensive purposes.
Nonetheless, the president is not best pleased with the UK as he said of Starmer: "So we are very surprised. This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with."
It lead to Trump speaking about his mother, Mary Anne Macleod Trump, who was born in Scotland before immigrating to the US as a teenager.
Speaking of the UK, Trump said: "They ruin relationships. It’s a shame. And I love that country. I love it. My mother was born there."
He then gestured to Metz, adding: "My father was born — he knows all about my father. My father was born there. There are places that you sort of automatically very, very — feel warmly about."
The fact is Fred Trump is not from Germany, but instead a borough of New York City.
It's in fact the president's grandparents, Frederich Trump and Elizabeth Christ Trump, who were born in Germany and immigrated to the US.
Remarkably, it's not the first time Trump has mistakenly said his father is from Germany, as he told CBS News during a press briefing in 2019: "My father is German — was German — born in a very wonderful place in Germany, so I have a very great feeling for Germany."
As for Tuesday's press conference, Trump announced that he would be 'cutting off all trade' with Spain after the European nation refused to help the US with its military operation in the Middle East.
He told press: "Spain has been terrible. In fact I told Scott [Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent] to cut off all dealings with Spain."
Spanish Prime Minster Pedro Sánchez hit back and condemned US' attack of Iran, saying: "We will not be complicit in something that is bad for the world and that is also contrary to our values and interests simply out of fear of reprisals from someone.”