President Donald Trump was swiftly fact-checked after claiming during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday at the White House that his father Fred Trump was born in Germany.
Fred Trump was born in the Bronx, New York City, on October 11, 1905. It was his parents—Frederick Trump and Elizabeth Christ Trump—who immigrated to the United States from Germany, settling in New York shortly before Fred Trump was born.
Nonetheless, when responding to questions about U.S.-Israeli military actions against Iran, Donald Trump criticized Spain and the United Kingdom for their lack of support and said his father had been born in Germany:
“They ruin relationships. It’s a shame. And I love that country [the UK]. I love it. My mother was born there."
Gesturing to Merz, he said:
"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.”
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Trump previously claimed during a press briefing that "my father is German—was German—born in a very wonderful place in Germany, so I have a very great feeling for Germany," so this isn't his first rodeo with this lie.
But considering how often he sundowns in front of us and in light of his recent health problems, people definitely have thoughts—and fact-checked him immediately.
Trump went on to say that “what the U.K. is doing with energy and immigration is terrible,” adding that the country had been “very, very uncooperative with that stupid island they have, that they gave away and took a 100-year lease.” He was referring to the United Kingdom’s decision to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, which host a major U.S.-U.K. military base, to Mauritius.
It's a wonder he can even keep that straight.
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