The White House has not responded to CNN’s repeated requests for comment over the last two days to clarify President Donald Trump’s recent misrepresentation about his father’s birthplace.
Later, a Trump adviser sought to deflect attention on Trump’s misrepresentation by trying to shift the focus to former President Barack Obama.
“Obama thought we had 57 states. Sometimes mistakes happen,” the adviser said.
But Trump has now made the claim his father was born in Germany at least three times, according to The Washington Post.
While speaking Tuesday in the Oval Office about German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump referred to his father as someone who was born in Germany, despite the fact that he was born in the Bronx.
“I have great respect for Angela and I have great respect for the country,” Trump said. “My father is German, was German, born in a very wonderful place in Germany so I have a very great feeling for Germany.”
Trump’s grandfather, it is worth noting, was born in Germany.
Trump said in his book, “The Art of the Deal,” that his father’s father came to America “from Sweden as a child.”
According to multiple reports, Trump’s father sought to conceal the fact that he was the son of German immigrants due to tensions following World War II. He tried to pass himself off as Swedish, according to the biography, “The Trumps: Three Generations that Built an Empire.”
This story has been updated.
