U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday confused his father and grandfather about his German ancestry and mistakenly said his father, Fred Trump, was born in Germany, who is in fact born in New York City.

Meeting Tuesday with NATO's secretary general, Trump reached back into his family history — and missed — as he made the point that Germany should be spending more on its own military budget, to relieve pressure on NATO partners.

"I have great respect for Angela, and I have great respect for the country," he said, referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "My father is German, right, was German, and born in a very wonderful place in Germany, and so I have a great feeling for Germany, but they're not paying what they should be paying."

Trump's father, Fred, was born in New York City. The president's grandfather, Friedrich, was born in Germany.

Friedrich Trump immigrated to the U.S. in 1885 at the age of 16, arriving in New York before moving to the western parts of the U.S.