In true Donald Trump fashion, Trump entered Monday’s convention amid theatrical smoke as Queen’s ‘We Are the Champions’ played full blast.
He went on to introduce his ‘wife, an amazing mother, an incredible woman,’ Melania, – one thing she’s not, however, is an original speech writer.
All was going well for the former model, who appeared to charm the convention crowd with her speech and strong eastern European accent – until someone noticed one of the more uplifting sections in her address was pretty much identical to a passage from Michelle Obama’s convention speech in 2008, BBC reports.
Melania has proved she’s so eager to follow in Michelle Obama’s footsteps that she’s even willing to rip off the First Lady’s speech.
Here’s the key moment in Melania’s speech:
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 me to show the values and morals in my daily life. That is the lesson that I continue to pass along to our son.
And we need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. [Cheering] 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.
And here’s a very similar passage from Michelle Obama’s 2008 address:
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 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.
This side-by-side video really shows how closely the two overlap:
The copying is too extensive to be coincidence, so while some people may say it was borrowed or used to pay homage to Michelle, it’s more just quite blatant plagiarism.
And it’s not gone unnoticed:
There’s no explanation yet for how this all happened, but before the speech, Melania Trump told NBC: “I wrote it…with as little help as possible.”
The fact that Melania Trump plagiarised her speech shows just how ridiculous the Trump campaign can be, the whole thing is almost laughable.
But she didn’t stop there – she also took cue from Rick Astley:
Unfortunately, she didn’t follow it up with ‘he will never run around or desert you’.
