--- title: Donald Trump Jr. Calls Plagiarism Allegations "Ridiculous" description: "And I worked with Frank Buckley on it, it's as simple as that." canonical: https://time.com/4414344/donald-trump-jr-calls-plagiarism-allegations-ridiculous/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-20T05:29:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:23:08.980Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Jr. Calls Plagiarism Allegations 'Ridiculous' og:description: He says he worked with a professional speechwriter. og:url: https://time.com/4414344/donald-trump-jr-calls-plagiarism-allegations-ridiculous/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e6659cdfb752eaa/69889caea988ca6bbb6b8afe/gettyimages-577716288.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Republican National Convention: Day Two og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Jr. Calls Plagiarism Allegations 'Ridiculous' twitter:description: He says he worked with a professional speechwriter. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e6659cdfb752eaa/69889caea988ca6bbb6b8afe/gettyimages-577716288.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Jr. Calls Plagiarism Allegations 'Ridiculous'  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jul 20, 2016 5:29 AM UTC  Donald Trump Jr. delivers a speech on the second day of the Republican National Convention on July 19, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (John Moore--Getty Images) Donald Trump Jr. delivers a speech on the second day of the Republican National Convention on July 19, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (John Moore--Getty Images)John Moore—Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Jul 20, 2016 5:29 AM UTC Donald Trump Jr. slammed critics who accused him of plagiarizing his GOP convention speech Tuesday night, calling the accusations “ridiculous.” “Of course I work with a professional speechwriter who does these things on some things,” Trump told TIME as he left the Westin Hotel bar Tuesday night. “And I’m new to politics, I’ve never done that. I’m going to go with someone who knows what they’re doing. And I worked with Frank Buckley on it, it’s as simple as that.” Buckley, a law professor at George Mason University,[ confirmed](http://time.com/4414279/donald-trump-jr-speechwriter-says-there-was-no-plagiarism/?xid=homepage) that he had indeed written the speech. _The Daily Show_ first pointed out the similarities between Trump Jr.’s speech and a May article in the American Conservative entitled “[Trump vs. the New Class](http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/trump-vs-the-new-class/).” Because he had written both the article and the speech, Buckley said, “it’s not an issue.” Trump Jr. agrees. “A lot of it’s my own words because I’m talking about my father and my family,” he added. The allegations come just a day after it was revealed that large portions of Melania Trump’s speech [appear to have been lifted or adapted](http://time.com/4412175/republican-convention-melania-trump-michelle-obama/) from Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech. But Trump Jr. says there’s nothing to see here. “People are trying to find a story where it doesn’t exist,” he said. “They have an agenda, they’ve made up their mind, it’s as simple as that.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4414344/donald-trump-jr-calls-plagiarism-allegations-ridiculous/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4414344/donald-trump-jr-calls-plagiarism-allegations-ridiculous/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Jr. Calls Plagiarism Allegations 'Ridiculous'","datePublished":"2016-07-20T05:29:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:23:08.980Z","description":"'Of course I work with a professional speechwriter'","url":"https://time.com/4414344/donald-trump-jr-calls-plagiarism-allegations-ridiculous/","keywords":["Republican National Convention","Daily Show","Melania Trump","Donald Trump Jr."],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e6659cdfb752eaa/69889caea988ca6bbb6b8afe/gettyimages-577716288.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e6659cdfb752eaa/69889caea988ca6bbb6b8afe/gettyimages-577716288.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican National Convention: Day Two","caption":"Republican National Convention: Day Two","creditText":"John Moore—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":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/republican-national-convention/","name":"Republican National Convention"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4414344/donald-trump-jr-calls-plagiarism-allegations-ridiculous/","name":"Donald Trump Jr. Calls Plagiarism Allegations 'Ridiculous'"}}]}] ```