In reading and listening to commentary this morning, I am struck by how Melania Trump is portrayed as a victim of her speechwriters -- some commentators going so far as to say she was 'betrayed.'
This is demeaning to women -- that is, she is a victim? Hardly. Even by the Times own reporting on her history, Mrs. Trump has played her hand repeatedly -- capitalizing on her looks and when seeing an opportunity (here I paraphrase a friend), she seized it to ostensibly improve her place in society. Thus, her union with Trump.
She claimed she wrote the speech herself; she claimed to have read it only once before giving it. This is just another example of the Trumpesque political burlesque that we have been watching for a year now. Mrs. Trump by many accounts, is considered an aware, intelligent person. Did she just dress for the occasion and the part without considering her place in history? She is as much to blame as those writers who 'set her up.' She is a grown woman and should take responsibility for what she says and does. Nobody gets a pass on this one, including the Trumps themselves. Where are those family members running the show? Clearly a return to "The Amateur Hour."
--Nancy Rose Steinbock
So much for Mrs. Trump's values and opinions. It is bad enough that she did not even bother to verify the contents of what someone wrote for her or in any way personalize the text, but she needed someone to write what she wanted to say about herself? It's one thing to have a speechwriter when making a major policy announcement but to use one to provide one's own experience, to praise her husband, to introduce herself to the country? Really?
And the Trump campaign has known for at least two months that he'd be the nominee, and that his wife would make a speech. Don't they have anyone to check what the speechwriters prepared for integrity, accuracy and originality? Putting random phrases in quotes and doing an online search would have immediately found the original speech by Michelle Obama - something an intern could have done. Sheez. Talk about incompetent simpletons - the whole campaign is a joke.
--The Real Mr. Magoo
Yes the authentically felt words of someone else who you need to reference. Sure both speeches were mostly written by someone else but come on Mrs. Trump or probably her speechwriter lifted whole segments of Mrs. Obama's speech. and you say it is nothing. Even worse Trump will not even acknowledge the sloppy work of the speech writer an take any responsibility. It is a pattern when he himself says things over and over that are false and when called on it says he saw or heard it on the internet. But according to you it is not a serious world event so we just look the other way. It was the prime time speech of a possible first lady where she says she wrote. But its main core was lifted from the wife of the president the Republicans demonized the entire first night and Mr. Trump even implied earlier in the day indirectly supports police shootings. Yeah it surely is much ado about nothing.
--BC
Plagiarism is not imitation, it is theft. Spending the last 8 years mocking and attacking President Obama, as Donald Trump has done, and then stealing Michelle Obama's convention speech to "introduce" Mrs. Trump to America is not respectful of her depth or capacity for empathy - it is stupid, offensive and insulting. And it is utterly baffling to think that no one involved with the Trump campaign vetted "her" speech, which was so obviously written by others, to check for originality of content. I mean, they only had two months to prepare.
You say it is much ado about nothing, which may make some sense only in the context of a campaign that has been redefining stupidity and offensiveness by the day. But it clearly shows that the Trump campaign is either utterly clueless or lacks even a shred of integrity or decency. Either way, this is - or should be - yet another red flag.
--TRMM
My spidey sense was tingling the minute Melania Trump started speaking. It was crystal clear that she not only didn't write her speech but she didn't understand parts of it either. Phrases like 'word is his bond' set off the alarm bells for me.
The side-by-side comparisons of First Lady Obama and Melania Trump are cruel. On one side we have the most intelligent and accomplished First Lady in history, who was actually President Obama's boss when they met. On the other we have a woman who posed and dated a series of rich men to get where she is.
Mrs. Trump didn't just plagiarize the First Lady's speech, she flat out lied. She called her husband an 'honest' and 'honourable' man. English isn't her first language so it's possible she doesn't know what those words mean.
--Laura174
So this puts Trump in an unenviable position. He has staked his campaign on calling Clinton a liar. Now his wife has said, in an interview with Matt Lauer, that she wrote the speech. If she did write the speech then she plagiarized Mrs. Obama, making her a liar. If she didn't write the speech, and they throw a staff member under the bus, then she lied to Mr. Lauer. So anyway you slice it Donald Trump's wife is a liar. Tsk. Tsk.
--Oliver
