I am sure we have all heard about Melania Trump’s recent speech at the Republican Convention. The story is that she plagiarized Michelle Obama’s speech that she in turn gave in similar circumstances years prior. After some deliberation, many people have concluded that Melania's speech borrowed very heavily from Michelle's speech. This event has only added to the mounting concern about the damage can be wrought from a campaign that doesn’t even write their own speeches. The true victim this time wasn’t the presidential process or the integrity of our system, it was Melania herself.
At first, she claimed to have written the speech herself. At first glance, it looks bad that there was an entire paragraph taken from another speech, but if I were in her place I would look to successful speeches first too. I don’t think she had a lot of experience writing speeches and maybe the line between plagiarism or emulation wasn’t very clear. The point is that speechwriting isn’t really in her wheelhouse, which isn’t surprising seeing as most public speakers don’t write their own speeches. Melania had a choice between looking incredibly stupid on national television or taking a risk that no one would notice: one paragraph. She should have gotten proper coaching, and the responsibility should not fall on her to suddenly gain skills overnight.
There is the chance that she did not write it, but that reality is no better. If a staff of writers plagiarized Michelle, then they knowingly put her in the line of fire. The staff would understand that someone, somewhere would make the connection to Michelle Obama, and the entire scandal would fall on Melania’s shoulders, whether she knew what she was saying or not.
I think the Trump campaign is at fault for failing to see this coming. Even worse, they let it happen to someone who isn’t running in the race. This is such a big deal because it shows the lack of care that goes into the campaign. If the staff can’t appropriately proofread or write the biggest speech a potential first lady has given, then it raises questions as to whether they really putting time into shaping the rest of the campaign. How much are they really just pandering to the masses, and hoping to not get caught? What does it say about a candidate that has a lackluster staff? A big part of the presidency is having the right people, and this mistake speaks to the type of people we might expect.
It’s one thing for a candidate to prove time and again that he doesn’t care about the process. It’s even another thing for a candidate to display disregard for entire races of people, all of the LGBT community, most of our global allies and even his own supporters. But to lay that ground work for his own wife to needlessly fall under fire, I think speaks volumes.
