Fascist demagogue, serial liar, and US Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump sought to soften his abrasive image by having his wife Melania speak at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.  And what better way to do that than by having her lift portions of her address from a talented speaker and lawyer named Michelle Obama?

As first pointed out by journalist Jarrett Hill, side-by-side comparisons of the transcripts show that Melania Trump's speech copied the current First Lady's speech from the first night of the Democratic convention in Denver nearly eight years ago - nearly to the word.  Both speeches used the same lines in the same order and in the same context:  "you work hard for what you want in life"; "that your word is your bond, that you do what you say"; "the only limits on the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams", changed to "strength of your dreams" in the GOP version.

Donald Trump had earlier claimed that Melania wrote the speech herself.  He might want to change his story to admit that there were speech writers involved, because the similarities to Michelle Obama's 2008 speech are striking.  Whoever wrote it - or copied and pasted it - the campaign had the final approval on what Melania would read at the convention and signed off on the speech.  Within hours, stories about how the speech was plagiarized overwhelmed coverage of the speech itself.