During last week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Melania Trump delivered probably the most high profile speech of her life. Her husband was the Republican nominee, and her speech could have been political gold. She talked about her husband’s character, trustworthiness and tried to present a softer side of Trump.
Unfortunately, the speech was quickly overshadowed by controversy, and turned out to be one of the most embarrassing moments of the convention. As it turns out, many phrases from the speech were plagiarized straight from Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
There was no avoiding this--it was a colossal PR nightmare. Even the conservative Fox News had a tough time defending the speech.
Soon enough, Melania’s speech was all you could see on the news. But what if I told you that Melania’s speech didn’t really matter?
Of course, it was an embarrassing mistake. But for no reason should Melania’s speech change what you think about the presidential election. Below I list three reasons why Melania’s speech plagiarism doesn’t matter that much.
First, Melania most likely didn’t even write her speech, and for that matter I’m sure Mrs. Obama didn’t write her own speech in 2008 either. All presidential campaigns have a dedicated staff of speechwriters and communication directors who carefully design what they want their candidate to say. It is no different for the President’s spouse. Obviously, there was a breakdown in communication between Mrs. Trump and her speechwriters. But Melania deserves little to no blame for the obvious mistake of a careless Trump employee.
Second, there is a chance that this whole thing was simply a ploy for media attention by the Trump camp. If this is the case, then us giving this speech all of the attention it has received is falling right into the hands of Trump’s strategy. In the mind of Donald Trump, all publicity is good publicity. Historically, if a speechwriter plagiarizes a speech they are immediately fired. In the case of Trump, the speechwriter released a statement about how she tendered her resignation, but it was refused by the Trump campaign. This is unprecedented among modern political campaigns.
Lastly, Melania’s speech is unimportant compared to many of the issues that should be talked about in the presidential race. Instead, we have been pulled down into the muck of political trash throwing between the two parties. A person’s vote should be decided by where they stand on policy, and how they feel about the candidate, not by how their spouse's speech went at the Convention.
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this, it is that Melania’s speech should be a non-important factor in your decision when November comes. If her speech changed your mind on this election, then you probably didn’t have good reasoning in the first place. This election, focus on the issues that matter, and in case you were wondering, Melania’s speech doesn't.
