--- title: Donald Trump Jr Speechwriter Says He Reused Lines For Speech description: Donald Trump Jr used phrases in a speech at the Republican National Convention that were similar to phrases published in a May article. canonical: https://time.com/4414279/donald-trump-jr-speechwriter-says-there-was-no-plagiarism/ author: Will Drabold article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-20T04:02:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:23:06.320Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Jr Uses Phrases From Conservative Writer og:description: Donald Trump's oldest son used phrases similar to those in a May article. og:url: https://time.com/4414279/donald-trump-jr-speechwriter-says-there-was-no-plagiarism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt053ed7ef00df42b5/69889ca55f570f625eb21c5d/landon-nordeman-rnc-republican-national-convention-day-2-25.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL RNC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Jr Uses Phrases From Conservative Writer twitter:description: Donald Trump's oldest son used phrases similar to those in a May article. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt053ed7ef00df42b5/69889ca55f570f625eb21c5d/landon-nordeman-rnc-republican-national-convention-day-2-25.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Jr Speechwriter Says There Was No Plagiarism by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 20, 2016 4:02 AM UTC  Scenes from the floor at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Tuesday, July 19, 2016. Scenes from the floor at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Tuesday, July 19, 2016.Landon Nordeman—Landon Nordeman for TIME by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 20, 2016 4:02 AM UTC Donald Trump Jr. used multiple sentences in a convention speech Tuesday night that were similar to phrases published in an article in _The American Conservative_ in May. But the author of the article says nothing was stolen from his work. That’s because he was an author of the convention speech. “I was a principal speechwriter for the speech,” F. H. Buckley, a law professor at George Mason University, wrote to TIME. “So it’s not an issue.” The phrases,