Trump's family denied German heritage for years
Jennifer Hansler

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

Updated 2:57 PM ET, Tue November 28, 2017

(CNN)President Donald Trump has come under fire for using the name of a famous Native American as a slur -- at an event honoring Native Americans for their service as code talkers in World War II, no less.

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Fred Trump sought to pass himself off as Swedish amid anti-German sentiment sparked by World War II. According to the biography "The Trumps: Three Generations that Built an Empire" by Gwenda Blair, Fred Trump denied knowing German and did not teach it to his children.

John Walter, a Trump family historian and one of Donald Trump's cousins, said this was an effort to not offend his Jewish customers.
"He said, 'You don't sell apartments after the war if you're German,' " Walter said in the Boston Globe article. "So he's Swedish, no problem."

Even after World War II, Fred Trump continued to claim he was Swedish, according to Walter.

More: https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/28/politics/trump-family-heritage/index.html