--- title: Republican Convention: Melania Trump Quotes Michelle Obama description: Clear echoes in two speeches eight years apart canonical: https://time.com/4412175/republican-convention-melania-trump-michelle-obama/ author: Michael Scherer article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-19T04:33:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T12:37:53.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Republican Convention: Melania Trump Quotes Michelle Obama og:description: Clear echoes in two speeches eight years apart og:url: https://time.com/4412175/republican-convention-melania-trump-michelle-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fc21f5318504f94/69889c738e06016d02466bd4/melania-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Melania Trump, wife of Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, delivers a speech on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Republican Convention: Melania Trump Quotes Michelle Obama twitter:description: Clear echoes in two speeches eight years apart twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fc21f5318504f94/69889c738e06016d02466bd4/melania-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Melania Trump Uses Phrases From Michelle Obama's 2008 Convention Speech by [Michael Scherer](https://time.com/author/michael-scherer/) ## Michael Scherer Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:37 PM UTCPublished: Jul 19, 2016 4:33 AM UTC  Melania Trump, wife of Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, delivers a speech on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Melania Trump, wife of Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, delivers a speech on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.Joe Raedle—Getty Images by [Michael Scherer](https://time.com/author/michael-scherer/) ## Michael Scherer Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:37 PM UTCPublished: Jul 19, 2016 4:33 AM UTC Aspiring First Lady Melania Trump earned high praise for her Republican Convention speech Monday night. It was optimistic, compassionate and apparently heartfelt. Some of the words had also been spoken before by current First Lady Michelle Obama. Shortly after the speech, observers [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/JarrettHill/status/755242423991709697) noticed that a passage Trump read about her upbringing borrowed heavily from the structure and phrasing used by Michelle Obama in her 2008 convention speech. “They’re nearly identical,” [wrote](https://twitter.com/jonfavs/status/755250105330966530) former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, in response. “Somebody is seriously fired.” In 2008, Michelle Obama delivered these words: --- > “” --- Here is Melania Trump in 2016: --- > “” --- Later Monday night, the Trump campaign’s senior communications advisor, Jason Miller, released a statement on Melania’s convention speech, saying: “In writing her beautiful speech, Melania’s team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking. Melania’s immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech, which made it such a success.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4412175/republican-convention-melania-trump-michelle-obama/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4412175/republican-convention-melania-trump-michelle-obama/"},"headline":"Melania Trump Uses Phrases From Michelle Obama's 2008 Convention Speech","datePublished":"2016-07-19T04:33:26.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T12:37:53.000Z","description":"Clear echoes in two speeches eight years apart","url":"https://time.com/4412175/republican-convention-melania-trump-michelle-obama/","keywords":["Republican National Convention","Michelle Obama","Donald Trump","Republican","Melania Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fc21f5318504f94/69889c738e06016d02466bd4/melania-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michael Scherer","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/michael-scherer/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fc21f5318504f94/69889c738e06016d02466bd4/melania-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Melania Trump, wife of Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, delivers a speech on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.","caption":"Melania Trump, wife of Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, delivers a speech on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.","creditText":"Joe Raedle—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/4412175/republican-convention-melania-trump-michelle-obama/","name":"Melania Trump Uses Phrases From Michelle Obama's 2008 Convention Speech"}}]}] ```