Trump says his dad was German, which he very much wasn't

Fred Trump was born in New York City

Which is not in Germany

Donald Trump has told reporters that his dad was German, which he very nearly was. Fred Trump was from New York City, which at only 3,800 miles from the western borders of Germany is a hair's breadth away from being true, cosmically speaking.

The claim came as Trump got stuck into one of his usual bête noirs (or, if we're to truly honour his family lineage, his angstgegner): the financial contributions of America's NATO allies, and why they're actually rubbish.

"I mean Germany, honestly, is not paying their fair share," Trump said in a White House press conference. "I have great respect for Angela and I have great respect for the country. My father is German, right? Was German. Born in a... very... wonderful... place in Germany. So I have a great feeling for Germany."

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Frederick Christ Trump, Donald's dad, was born in the Bronx, New York City, in 1905. At the time the Bronx was not annexed or administered by Germany, a state of affairs which has continued to this day. Unless Fred Trump was born in the German embassy in New York, he was very much American. In fact, friends of Fred say he would often pretend to have Swedish parents so as not to put off Jewish tenants living in his buildings after the Second World War.

Frederick's parents, though - Frederick and Elizabeth Christ Trump - were sort of German. They were both born in Kallstadt in the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1869 and 1880 respectively, a region which became a republic and a federal state of Germany in 1918. So, they weren't German in the way we'd recognise it anyway, and that's before you consider that Frederick emigrated to America at 16, roughly the age when conscription to the Imperial German Army was on the horizon. It's a bit more drastic than bone spurs, but it worked. A lucrative trade in the Yukon restaurant biz made him wealthy.

Sixteen years later, he bobbed back to Kallstadt, found a bride, then scarpered again as the authorities hadn't forgotten his attempt to duck service and petitioned him out of the country. Still, nice to know where family traditions come from isn't it?

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