On Monday night, Donald Trump’s wife Melania touched hearts as she addressed the Republican National Convention, sharing the lessons she learned growing up as a black girl on the South Side of Chicago.
As first spotted by journalist Jarrett Hill, Melania’s speech bore more than a passing resemblance to another speech at another convention about eight years ago — Michelle Obama’s 2008 address to the Democratic National Convention. The cribbed portion discussed the values that Michelle and Melania apparently share, including working hard for what you want in life and keeping your word.
A statement by the Trump camp said that Melania’s speechwriters “took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking,” and that “Melania’s immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech, which made it such a success.” Melania told Matt Lauer in an interview prior to the convention that she wrote the speech herself (and whoever told her to say that did her a grave disservice).
Which is the first time ever that white people have ever appropriated and taken credit for a black woman’s work, ever.
Twitter, of course, has plenty of other #FamousMelaniaTrumpQuotes that didn’t make it into the speech.
And then, of course, there’s this one: