Mary Trump, the estranged niece of Donald Trump, reacted on social media after the president erroneously claimed that his father, Fred Trump, was born in Germany, saying his “favorite son” should have known the correct answer.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email.
Why It Matters
During a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz this week, Trump suggested his father was born in Germany.
“That country, U.K., and I love that country. I love it. My mother was born there. My father was born—he knows all about my father—my father was born there. They’re places you sort of automatically feel very warmly about,” he said.
Video of his remarks has gone viral on social media, with more than 1.6 million views by Wednesday afternoon.
What to Know
Mary Trump responded to the clip in a post on X on Wednesday.
“This is not the kind of insider knowledge most people have access to, but my grandfather, Fred Trump, Sr., was not born in Germany; he was born in the Bronx, NY, and grew up in Woodhaven, Queens–something you’d think his favorite son would know,” she wrote.
Fred Trump was born in New York City in 1905, according to a New York Times obituary. However, his father—Trump’s grandfather—was indeed born in Germany.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has been dismissive of Mary Trump’s critiques of the president, previously telling Newsweek, “Mary Trump is a stone-old [sic] loser who doesn’t have a clue about anything.”
Trump has previously incorrectly stated that his father was from Germany. In 2018, he said in an interview with CBS News, “I mean, my mother was Scotland, my father was Germany.”
This is a breaking news article that will be updated when additional information is available.
