Donald Trump Jr.’s Speech Definitely Not Stolen, Unlike Melania’s

Donald Trump’s campaign doesn’t seem to have any original ideas. Melania Trump’s convention speech stole passages from Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC speech and now it appears Donald Trump Jr.’s speech was partially published as an article in May.

The article was published in American Conservative magazine under the title ‘Trump v the New Class’. The author, F. H. Buckley, is now a speechwriter with the Trump campaign and wrote Trump Jr.’s speech for last night’s convention appearance.

Buckley lifted passages from his article with little alteration and inserted them into his speech for Donald Jr. While this may not be plagiarism, since he’s only stealing his own words, it does raise questions yet again about the organisation in the Trump campaign.

Following Melania Trump’s obvious rip-off of the First Lady’s 2008 speech, you might think the campaign would be more careful about what its surrogates say, especially if what they say has already been published. The controversy and weak defense of Melania Trump’s stolen passages failed to raise any red flags, however, and Trump Jr. read the previously published lines last night.

Trump’s speechwriter defended his work by saying all the words were his own and the magazine article was intended as a speech for Trump. While recycling your own words is not as egregious as stealing from the wife of another party’s president, it cast doubt on the campaign’s seriousness and Donald Trump’s judgment.

The campaign’s claim that 93% of Melania Trump’s speech was original has not impressed critics, who have pointed that a 6% plagiarism rate would be unacceptable in a college essay.