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Melania Trump's Speech Definitely Plagiarized Michelle Obama

Though Trump's team insists the similar speeches were a mere coincidence, experts disagree.
Screenshot via YouTube

The first day of the Republican National Convention was full of excitement—including the allegation that Melania Trump, wife to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, plagiarized a portion of her speech last night from Michelle Obama's 2008 speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Jarrett Hill, a California resident with a background in journalism, noticed the similarities in the speeches first and tweeted about it last night.

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For comparison, here's what Obama said in 2008:

And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them.
And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and to pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

And here's what Trump said last night:

From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise, that you treat people with respect.
They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily lives. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son. And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

The US Office of Research Integrity defines plagiarism as "the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit."

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As media outlets began picking up the allegations of plagiarism, the Trump campaign released a statement this morning. "In writing her beautiful speech, Melania's team of writers took notes on her life's inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking," said Jason Miller, senior communications advisor. "Melania's immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech, which made it such a success."

Campaign chairman Paul Manafort also appeared on CNN this morning to refute the claims and blame Hillary Clinton for the shit storm. "There's no cribbing of Michelle Obama's speech. These were common words and values. She cares about her family," Manafort said. "To think that she'd be cribbing Michelle Obama's words is crazy."

"This is, once again, an example of what happens when a woman threatens Hillary Clinton," he continued. "She seeks to demean her and take her down. It's not going to work."

Jon Ladd, an associate professor in the McCourt School of Public Policy and the Department of Government at Georgetown University, tells Broadly that this is definitely a case of plagiarism, by any definition. More importantly, though, the move shows how unorganized the Trump campaign is.

"The staffing is poor, the number of people and the expertise they have to run the campaign is just very poor, which we knew before," says Ladd, who studies news media, partisan polarization, and public opinion. "This should have never happened. It's easy to fix."

Plagiarism expert Jonathan Bailey writes on his website Plagiarism Today that although it's unlikely the similarities in the speeches were coincidental: They both "invoked the exact same values (hard work, word as your bond, and treating people with respect) in the exact same order with much of the same language," thus indicating last night's speech "borrowed heavily" from Obama's.

But, he notes, Trump may not be to blame. "This does not mean that Melania personally committed plagiarism," Bailey states. "Though there are somewhat conflicting reports on how the speech was written, it's clear that she had at least some assistance from a speechwriter and it's very likely that the passages at issue came from that writer."

Although it's not uncommon for speechwriters to read similar texts for inspiration, Ladd says, lifting whole paragraphs reveals a lack of time in either writing or proofreading. It's like a student getting caught copying work, according to him. "This type of thing happens when you haven't put enough work into a project and are finishing at the last minute."