Claim: Fred Trump's dad was a German-American.

Frederick Trump -LRB- born Friedrich Trump ; March 14 , 1869 -- May 27 , 1918 -RRB- was a German American businessman . Born in Kallstadt , in the Kingdom of Bavaria -LRB- now in Rhineland-Palatinate , Germany -RRB- , he emigrated to the United States at the age of 16 and started working as a barber . Several years later in 1891 , he moved to the Northwest . He made his fortune operating boom-town restaurants and boarding houses in Seattle and a mining town to the north , and in the Klondike Gold Rush . He later returned to Germany and married . When authorities found that he had emigrated when young to avoid fulfilling his military service , he lost his Bavarian citizenship ; he and his family returned to the United States .   He worked as a barber and hotel manager , and began to acquire real estate in Queens . He was the father of Fred and John G. Trump , and grandfather of Donald Trump , the 45th President of the United States .