By Nicole Hensley – NY Daily News
Melania Trump’s first major stump speech for her husband and White House hopeful Donald Trump was supposed to be uplifting, but instead appeared to have lifted lines from First Lady Michelle Obama.
A portion of Melania’s address to the Republican National Convention, praising values and hard work, on Monday was eerily similar to the speech delivered by Obama at 2008’s Democratic National Convention.
“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; that you do what you say,” Trump said in Cleveland.
The phrase mirrors the lines Michelle Obama used to highlight the values she shared with then-Sen. Obama when he was nominated in Denver.
Read a fragment from Melania Trump’s speech:
“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; that 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 life. That is a lesson that I continue to pass along to our son and we need to pass those lessons to the many generations that follow. Because want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength to your dreams and your willingness to work for them.”
Read a fragment from Michelle Obama’s speech:
“And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: like, you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond; that 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 onto 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 hard for them.”
The Trump campaign offered no explanation for the stolen words in a statement issued early Tuesday. Instead, it showered her speech with praise.
LOL which means they have nothing… 4 lines were similar to a speech M. Obama gave, similar lines that have been in thousands of graduation and commencement speeches among others. My parents told me the same things as have thousands of others… to funny!
I don’t understand why people are so extremist frum, why can’t everybody share words if you like them use them if you don’t like it don’t use it
I think the criticism is vastly overplayed – first, she didn’t write the speech, although she did contribute to it, and she wouldn’t know those lines may have come from Michele Obama even if she read them before giving the speech – second, the concerns the words in question express are common to vast numbers of people and when she read them they wouldn’t standout as so unique hat they may have been said by someone before, and third, she is a wife and mother, not a politician, and English is not her first language, and she was speaking to… Read more »
Someone(s) either wrote the whole speech or part of it. Who was that? Find them and deal with reality.
Really? You were going to vote for Trump and THIS is going to change your mind? Doesn’t sound like the Emes to me…
ANY COUNTRY THAT NEEDED A FAVOUR FROM SECRETARY HILLERY KLINTON USED TO PAY BILL CLINTON 500 K FOR A SPEACH.
COPYING IS COMPLEMENTING.
Truth and politics don’t go hand in hand. Yes, the speech was plagiarized. Yes, it was probably plagiarized by a speech writer. The Trump camp should admit it and move on.
The problem with Trump which is indicative of his campaign and his style is to deny the truth. He could be a good candidate, but he needs to learn to take a hit. And move on.
How poorly he dealt with this gives me serious pause. And I was inclined to vote for him.
The whole media left even Republican establishment are jumping on Trump. It won’t help Americans don’t want jihadists running around USA and your average rust belt coal mine worker wants his job which Clinton wants to close down. It just shows how desperate they are not picking at every opportunity.
It’s a whole paragraph, lifted almost verbatim. Of course it was the speech writer, not her, but that just proves that when she said she wrote it almost all herself she was lying.
its another bash trump tactic. 2 lines from a 20 min speech. seriously??
You’d think they would want to copy from a Republican and not from a Democrat. And certainly not the Democrat who you are campaigning against embodied now by Hilary! That to me is what’s so stupid.
While it’s funny and all, and a speech-writer should definitely lose his job, let’s all chill re Melania’s speech. She didn’t ask for this role, she clearly wasn’t cut out for it, and she’s trying her best to try to humanize her husband. I guarantee she did not intend to plagiarize: I bet she did not listen to Michelle Obama’s speech, as she did not write last night’s speech. She’s trying her best and that’s plenty fine by me. In fact, I admire her loyalty to her man. I also smell a whiff of elitism, sexism and nativism in the… Read more »
My parents taught me the exact same thing. These were a major part of lehavdil the10 commandments of educating a child before the world went mad.
Obama’s words were empty word’s let’s give the trumps a chance
Is that really the biggest news of the convention? Really?