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Donald Trump ist zu seinem ersten Staatsbesuch bei Angela Merkel in Berlin. Nach ein bisschen Small-Talk fragt er Merkel, was das Geheimnis ihres großen Erfolges ist. Merkel sagt ihm, man müsse nur viele intelligente Leute um sich herum haben.

“Wie wissen Sie so schnell, ob wer intelligent ist?” fragt Trump.

“Lassen Sie es mich demonstrieren” antwortet Merkel. Sie greift zum Telefon, ruft Wolfgang Schäuble an und stellt ihm eine Frage: “Herr Schäuble, es ist der Sohn ihres Vaters, ist aber nicht ihr Bruder. Wer ist es?”

Ohne zu zögern antwortet Schäuble: “Ganz einfach, das bin ich!”
“Sehen Sie”, sagt Merkel zu Trump, “so teste ich die Intelligenz der Leute, die um mich herum sind”.

Begeistert fliegt Trump zurück nach Amerika. Zu Hause angekommen, ruft er sofort seinen Vize Pence an, um ihm dieselbe Frage zu stellen. “Es ist der Sohn deines Vaters, ist aber nicht dein Bruder. Wer ist es?”

Nach langem hin und her sagt Pence: “Ich habe keine Ahnung, ich werde aber versuchen die Antwort bis morgen herauszufinden!”

Pence kommt einfach nicht drauf und beschließt, Rat beim ehemaligen Präsidenten Obama einzuholen. Er ruft ihn an: “Mr. Obama – es ist der Sohn ihres Vaters, ist aber nicht ihr Bruder. Wer ist es?” fragt er Obama.
“Ganz einfach, das bin ich!”

Glücklich, die Antwort gefunden zu haben, ruft Pence bei Trump an und sagt triumphierend: “Ich hab die Antwort, es ist Barack Obama!”

Trump brüllt ihn total entsetzt an: “Nein, du Trottel, es ist Wolfgang Schäuble!”

Donald Trump is on his first state visit to Angela Merkel in Berlin. After a little talk, he asks Merkel what the secret of her great success is. Merkel tells him you just have to have a lot of intelligent people around you.

"How do you know so quickly who's smart?" Asks Trump.

"Let me demonstrate it" answers Merkel. She picks up the phone, calls Wolfgang Schäuble, and asks him a question: "Herr Schäuble, it is her father's son, but she is not her brother. Who is it?"

Without hesitating, Schäuble answers, "Quite simply, that's me!"

"See," says Merkel to Trump, "that's how I test the intelligence of the people around me."

Excited, Trump flies back to America. When he arrives at home, he immediately calls VP Pence to ask him the same question. "It's your father's son, but it's not your brother. Who is it?"

After a long pause Pence says: "I have no idea, but I will try to find the answer by tomorrow!"

Pence just can not figure it out and decides to seek advice from former President Obama. He calls him, "Mr. Obama - it's her father's son, but not her brother. Who is it?" He asks Obama.

"Very simple, that's me!"

Happy to have found the answer, Pence calls Trump and says triumphantly: "I have the answer, it's Barack Obama!"

Trump shouts at him in total horror: "No, you idiot, it's Wolfgang Schäuble!"

oh god

The above riddle is an unusual version of 'Brothers and sisters, I have none. But that man's father is my father's son'.

Heh. I think I may have heard this before with other characters, but this version seems like the ideal cast.

A cute detail that doesn't translate well is that Merkel uses the respectful "you" (ihr Bruder) with Schäuble, and so does Pence with Obama, but Trump uses the informal "you" (dein Bruder) with Pence. This might imply that Trump is less polite than the others, but it's probably just a German guess at how informal things are in Trump's cabinet compared to Merkel's, and it's probably right at that.

What surprises me as a non-native German speaker is that whoever wrote this evidently thought about this issue enough to change the possessive pronouns for Trump. Except they probably did it without thinking, instinctively. Native language use is weird.