As you’ve no doubt heard by now, there was a good deal of controversy surrounding Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention on Monday night.
A close analysis of the potential first lady’s introduction to voters revealed that Mrs. Trump may have cribbed some key phrases and ideas from a previous candidate’s wife:
Now, astonishingly, the Trump campaign finds itself at the heart of yet another plagiarism controversy, this one centering around the real estate mogul’s son, Donald, Jr.
Donald’s youngest sister, Tiffany Trump, also gave a speech last night, but hers was almost entirely apolitical and focused on her father as a person.
Donald Jr., by contrast, seemed eager to delve into some of the finer policy points of his father’s platform.
Unfortunately, he may have done so with statements recycled from other sources.
Shortly after Donald Jr.’s speech, the Twitter account for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show pointed out some undeniable similarities between his address to the convention and an article for the American Conservative magazine, written by Frank H. Buckley.
Some examples (via Gawker):
Trump: “Our schools used to be an elevator to the middle class. Now, they’re stalled on the ground floor. They’re like Soviet era department stores that are run for the benefit of the clerks and not the customers.”
Buckley: “What should be an elevator to the upper class is stalled on the ground floor … Our schools and universities are like the old Soviet department stores whose mission was to serve the interests of the sales clerks and not the customers.”
Trump: “The other party gave us a regulatory state on steroids.”
Buckley: “Income equality gave Obama a winning hand, and that this gave the country things he hates: Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, and a regulatory state on steroids.”
Trump: “We’ve produced the thickest network of patronage of any country at any time in world history.”
Buckley: “And yet we’ve spawned the thickest network of patronage and influence of any country at any time.”
Buckley eventually offered a statement clarifying that he “helped” Donald Jr., write his speech, and that therefore, “there’s no issue here.”
Well, if the Trump campaign paid Buckley to compose an original address, we hope they kept their receipt.
