[War & Business] The Trump Family and the Flu

On the 8th (local time), President Donald Trump boarded a vehicle at the White House to head to his privately owned "Trump National Golf Club" in Sterling, Virginia. Washington DC (USA) = Photo by EPA Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] "Are there people who actually die from the flu?"

This one remark by President Donald Trump during a briefing on the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in March played a decisive role in the outcome of the recent U.S. presidential election. With the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the U.S. surpassing 10 million and more than 240,000 deaths, President Trump's careless comment was enough to stir the emotions of the American public.

American media outlets, including The Washington Post (WP), criticized President Trump's statement, calling him someone who does not even know how his own grandfather died. It was pointed out that Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, is known to have died from the 1918 Spanish flu, making it inappropriate to say that no one dies from the flu.

The flu dramatically altered the history of the Trump family. President Trump's great-grandfather, Johann Trump, originally from the Karlsstadt region of Germany, was known to have operated a winery. Johann suddenly died of pneumonia caused by an epidemic flu in 1877, which forced his son, Friedrich, President Trump's grandfather, to immigrate to the United States at the young age of 16. Upon arriving in the U.S., Friedrich worked various jobs such as janitor and barber to save money.

Later, he made a considerable amount of money by opening a red-light district catering to coal miners and married his girlfriend from Germany, establishing a family. Friedrich, who considered himself successful in America, wanted to return to his hometown in Germany, but he died due to the Spanish flu pandemic that swept the world in 1918. His plan to return home and resume the family winery was thwarted by the Spanish flu, forcing the Trump family to put down roots in America.

Suddenly responsible for the family, President Trump's father, Fred Trump, faced difficulties in business because he was revealed to be from Germany, which was an enemy country during World War I. To overcome this, he falsified his nationality as Swedish and started a real estate business. During World War I and the subsequent Great Depression, he acquired real estate properties with the money his father had saved. Benefiting from the New Deal policies, housing prices soared, and he rose to become a wealthy man. Thus began the myth of the Trump family as real estate tycoons.

Despite the well-known story of the Trump family, who crossed the ocean driven by hardship caused by the flu and dreamed of the American Dream, President Trump's four years in office ended with discriminatory policies hostile to immigrants who came under similar circumstances and disregard for the risks of infectious diseases. The voters’ desire to preserve America’s identity as a land of opportunity and freedom for everyone worldwide was expressed through their votes.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.