--- title: Republican Convention: Melania Trump Rick Rolled In Speech description: Was Melania Trump's alleged plagiarism of Michelle Obama's 2008 speech just an elaborate ruse to prevent us from noticing her Rickroll? canonical: https://time.com/4412801/melania-trump-rick-rolled-speech/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-19T16:10:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:32.173Z og:title: Melania Trump Just Rickrolled Us All og:description: Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down og:url: https://time.com/4412801/melania-trump-rick-rolled-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d87ad1044629083/69889c7c524fc035a4df8c60/melania-trump-rickroll.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-CONVENTION og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Melania Trump Just Rickrolled Us All twitter:description: Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d87ad1044629083/69889c7c524fc035a4df8c60/melania-trump-rickroll.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Melania Trump's Alleged Plagiarism Was Just a Front to Distract Us From Her Rickroll  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 19, 2016 4:10 PM UTC  Melania Trump, wife of presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, addresses delegates on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) Melania Trump, wife of presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, addresses delegates on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)ROBYN BECK—AFP/Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jul 19, 2016 4:10 PM UTC Let’s all slow clap for [Melania Trump](http://time.com/4412372/melania-trump-speech-criticism-michelle-obama/), who’s much more cunning than what meets the eye. While politicos were up in arms over her Monday night speech at the RNC [because of its uncanny similarities to Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech](http://time.com/4412175/republican-convention-melania-trump-michelle-obama/), the alleged plagiarism was really just a ploy to prevent us from realizing that the wife of the Donald was Rickrolling all of us. The Rickroll, one of the Internet’s oldest and most beloved traditions, consists of pranking someone by bait-and-switch linking out to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video, which probably makes Melania [the most meme-savvy and interesting person at the convention](http://time.com/4411994/rnc-livestream-republican-national-convention-watch-live/). Her speech was filled with hope, inspiration, and the very important Astley lyrics, “He will never, ever give you up. And, most importantly, he will never, ever let you down.” Watch Melania Rickroll the RNC below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4412801/melania-trump-rick-rolled-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4412801/melania-trump-rick-rolled-speech/"},"headline":"Melania Trump's Alleged Plagiarism Was Just a Front to Distract Us From Her Rickroll","datePublished":"2016-07-19T16:10:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:32.173Z","description":"Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down","url":"https://time.com/4412801/melania-trump-rick-rolled-speech/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","viral","Republican National Convention","Melania Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d87ad1044629083/69889c7c524fc035a4df8c60/melania-trump-rickroll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d87ad1044629083/69889c7c524fc035a4df8c60/melania-trump-rickroll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-CONVENTION","caption":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-CONVENTION","creditText":"ROBYN BECK—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4412801/melania-trump-rick-rolled-speech/","name":"Melania Trump's Alleged Plagiarism Was Just a Front to Distract Us From Her Rickroll"}}]}] ```