WATCH: Hilarious moment Donald Trump rides out GAFFE over man’s ‘dead father’

Speaking from the White House as signed his new law to introduce steep tariffs on foreign steel and aluminium, Scott Sarge, a steelworker from Pennsylvania, gave a speech about his father’s economic struggle working in the steel industry.

As Mr Sarge ended his address, the American President told him his father would be proud of him, assuming he was dead.

Donald Trump said: “Your father Herman is looking down, he’s very proud of you right now.”

The steelworker promptly corrected the President: “Oh, he’s still alive.”

In an attempt to ride off his gaffe, Mr Trump laughed and said: “Oh, he is? Then he’s probably even more proud of you.”

Speaking about the incident on CNN’s New Day the next day, Mr Sarge said he was more than happy to laugh about the whole thing thanks to his “steelworker mentality”.

He said: “He caught me off guard, but you’ve got to understand we’ve got the steelworker mentality of humour and we laughed about it.

“And you don’t take something like that personally, maybe the way I told the story, he thought he was dead, but I was emphasising the hard times he went through.

“Sometimes you’ve got to roll with the moment and it is what it is.”

On Thursday, Donald Trump confirmed his plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminium, sparking fears of a trade war around the world.

Critics fear the move will trigger a response in the form of similar taxes on American exports, with Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission President, already having declared retaliation was “inevitable”.

The tariffs are due to come into force in two weeks, although neighbours Mexico and Canada will be spared pending ongoing trade negotiations.