Melania's speech not the first time the Trumps have stolen from others

Ross Rosenfeld
20 Jul 2016



Melania's speech not the first time the Trumps have stolen from others


In March of this year, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, writing an opinion piece for the Pacific Daily News, said the following:


Medical care in the American territories and commonwealths has historically lagged far behind the continental states, and Obamacare has only made the situation worse. Good health is an essential part of a thriving society and economy, and citizens of the territories and commonwealths deserve policies that work.


The words themselves are hardly remarkable, save for one thing: They were the exact same words Dr. Ben Carson, Trump's opponent at the time, wrote for the Marianas Variety a mere month before. In fact, Trump seemed to lift practically his entire essay from Carson's, without any attribution.


But that's not all. Trump has also been accused of stealing former primary rival Jeb Bush's tax plan, and certainly the two are remarkably similar. As Slate pointed out back in September, each plan offers limited tax tiers (Bush, three and Trump, four) with considerably lower rates for the wealthy; each eliminates the estate tax; each also gets rid of the alternative minimum tax; and each claims to pay for itself through the elimination of deductions and loopholes.


Yet even that isn't the only example of Trump's copying. Trump's plan for veterans, released in October, was a near word-for-word copy of a plan set out by reform advocate Michael Crosby.


Some of Crosby's words:


Ensure our veterans get the care they need wherever and whenever they need it. No more long drives. No more waiting for backlogs. No more excessive red tape. Just the care and support they earned with their service to our country.


And Trump's?


Ensure our veterans get the care they need wherever and whenever they need it. No more long drives. No more waiting for backlogs. No more excessive red tape. Just the care and support they earned with their service to our country.


Notice anything?


Trump Institute, which Trump claimed he had nothing to do with (funny, since it was called "Trump Institute" — not to be confused with the equally defunct Trump University) was also accused of plagiarizing lessons.


Yet, The Donald isn't the only member of his campaign who's been accused of doing some liberal borrowing.


Ivanka Trump, the Donald’s daughter and close political advisor, has also been accused of copying, though in her case it involved stealing shoe designs. In 2011, she was sued by the Derek Lam company for ripping off their designs. Then, in 2012, by Mystique Footwear for the very same thing. Then again just this past month by Aquazzura.


And, of course, parts of Melania Trump's Monday night speech were clearly lifted from Michelle Obama’s 2008 address.


Are you sensing a pattern?


In isolation, these examples might be quickly forgotten, but together, they fit the pattern of a campaign that has largely been built on scapegoating, dissembling and sensationalism. In perfect character with this pattern, the Trump campaign has already issued a statement somehow blaming presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for the outrage surrounding Melania's speech, though there is absolutely no evidence for her involvement.


Of course, as with everything else about Donald Trump's campaign, the speech was a fake. But fakery is what the Trumps do best. Trump is known to exaggerate his wealth, lie to clinch business deals and invent stories of dissatisfaction to avoid paying contractors.


Are we ever going to get to see those tax returns, Donald? It would be interesting to see what light they shed.


 

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