US President Donald Trump is quite firm in his views on immigration, as he's on record as saying 'anyone ... in the United States illegally is subject to deportation'.
But it turns out that Trump's grandad was in that exact situation as he wrote a letter to German authorities in the early 20th century begging them not to kick him out.
Credit: PA
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The letter, published by the German tabloid Bild, shows Trump's grandfather, Friedrich Trump, pleading south German officials to let him stay in Bavaria after he was stripped of his citizenship.
The elder Trump faced expulsion from his home state for skipping military service to move to the US. How different would history have been if his plea had been successful?
"Why should we be deported? This is very, very hard for a family," Trump wrote in a letter translated from the original German by Harper's. "What will our fellow citizens think if honest subjects are faced with such a decree - not to mention the great material losses it would incur."
The elder Trump emigrated to the US in 1885 at the age of 16 from his hometown of Kallstadt, in what is now the southwestern German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
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However, that move cost him his Bavarian citizenship. Friedrich later became a US citizen, making his fortune running infamously seedy brothels and bars during the Yukon gold rush.
Trump later returned to his homeland in the early 1900s with all of his life savings after his fellow Bavarian wife felt homesick. However, the Bavarians said he was no longer welcome for his draft dodging.
"The American citizen and pensioner Friedrich Trump, currently residing in Kallstadt, is hereby informed that he is to depart the state of Bavaria, or face deportation," authorities said in a document dated February 1905, Deutsche Welle reported.
The modern home of Trump ancestors in Kallstadt, Germany. Credit: PA
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As the letter shows, Trump tried hard to fight the deportation, writing directly to Prince Leopold of Bavaria - who ruled over Kallstadt at the time - to beg him for permission to stay.
"In this urgent situation I have no other recourse than to turn to our adored, noble, wise, and just sovereign lord," Trump wrote in a more than grovelling tone, addressing Leopold as a ruler 'who has ruled so beneficially and justly and wisely and softly'. Alright, mate.
Clearly the flattery didn't convince the prince as Trump wound up back in the United States, with his ancestors in charge of the highest office of them all just two generations later.
Just imagine if the Bavarian royal had done Friedrich Trump a solid 112 years ago - for better or worse, Donald Trump wouldn't have existed at all.
Featured Image Credit: WikicommonsTopics: World News, News, Germany, US News, Donald Trump