President Donald Trump’s false claim during a Monday Oval Office meeting that his father was born in Germany has ignited fresh calls for invoking the 25th Amendment. Critics point to the obvious error—repeated multiple times over the years—as evidence of declining mental fitness.
The gaffe occurred as Trump met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to discuss Diego Garcia, a strategically vital island in the Indian Ocean that hosts a joint U.S.-U.K. military base. While criticizing the United Kingdom as “very very uncooperative” over a controversial deal to transfer the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the president veered into personal territory about his parents’ origins.
Trump first expressed affection for the U.K., correctly noting his mother was born there. Then, gesturing toward Merz, he added: “My father was born—he knows all about my father—my father was born there.”
The problem: Fred Trump was born in the Bronx, New York, on October 11, 1905—not Germany. Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, was indeed born in Scotland, part of the United Kingdom. His grandfather, Friedrich Trump, was the family member actually born in Germany, in the village of Kallstadt, before emigrating to the United States in 1885.
This marks at least the fourth time Trump has made this error publicly. In 2019, he declared, “My father is German, was German, born in a very wonderful place in Germany.” He made similar claims in a 2018 CBS News interview and a 2020 Fox News interview.
Mary Trump, the president’s estranged niece and a clinical psychologist, swiftly corrected the record. “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.
The 25th Amendment provides a constitutional mechanism for removing a president deemed unable to perform his duties. Such criticism carries particular weight given Trump’s own history of attacking Joe Biden over gaffes and mental acuity during the 2024 campaign. Trump repeatedly mocked Biden for verbal slips and questioned his cognitive abilities throughout Biden’s presidency.
The incident adds to mounting scrutiny of the 79-year-old president’s health transparency. Trump—the oldest person in American history to assume the presidency—underwent a second “routine yearly checkup” in October 2025, just six months after his April annual physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. His physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella, announced in July 2025 that Trump had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common circulatory condition among older adults.
The false claim came during the same meeting where Trump discussed his criticism of the U.K.’s decision to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while maintaining a 99-year lease on Diego Garcia. Trump has repeatedly attacked the agreement, posting “DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA!” and warning the base may be needed for military action against Iran.
Some observers suggest Trump confuses his father with his grandfather, who emigrated from Germany and died during the Spanish influenza epidemic in 1918. However, forgetting where one’s own father was born—while repeatedly invoking family heritage in public statements—represents a significant lapse for a sitting president.
Ironically, both Trump and his father previously denied their German ancestry altogether. In his 1987 book “The Art of the Deal,” Trump wrote that his grandfather “came here from Sweden as a child”—a claim that contradicted historical records. Fred Trump reportedly maintained the Swedish story for business reasons during and after World War II, when anti-German sentiment ran high in New York.
Vice President JD Vance has not commented on the president’s misstatement. The White House also declined to issue a correction or clarification regarding Trump’s claim about his father’s birthplace.
The president, who turns 80 in June, maintains he is in “perfect health” despite visible bruising on his hands—which the White House attributes to aspirin use and frequent handshaking—and periodic concerns about his alertness during public events. In a January Wall Street Journal interview, Trump dismissed rumors he had dozed off during meetings, blaming photographers for capturing him blinking.
What remains indisputable: Fred Trump was born in New York City in 1905, lived his entire life in the United States, and never claimed German birth. His son, the president, keeps getting that wrong.