--- title: Donald Trump Defends Melania's RNC Speech description: The Republican presidential nominee tweeted his support Wednesday after it was alleged that she cribbed the speech from Michelle Obama. canonical: https://time.com/4415073/donald-trump-melania-trumprnc-speech/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-20T16:42:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:24:07.220Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Defends Melania's RNC Speech og:description: The Republican presidential nominee tweeted his support Wednesday og:url: https://time.com/4415073/donald-trump-melania-trumprnc-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6c159dfa707cbd5/69889c813c163963cb45e167/landon-nordeman-republican-national-convention-rnc-scenes-0718-12.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 Defends Melania's RNC Speech twitter:description: The Republican presidential nominee tweeted his support Wednesday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6c159dfa707cbd5/69889c813c163963cb45e167/landon-nordeman-republican-national-convention-rnc-scenes-0718-12.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Defends Melania's RNC Speech by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jul 20, 2016 4:42 PM UTC  Donald Trump kisses his wife Melania at the 2016 Republican National Convention on Monday, July 18, 2016, in Cleveland. Donald Trump kisses his wife Melania at the 2016 Republican National Convention on Monday, July 18, 2016, in Cleveland.Landon Nordeman for TIME by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jul 20, 2016 4:42 PM UTC Donald Trump came to his wife’s defense Wednesday after she was accused of plagiarizing passages from a Michelle Obama speech in 2008. “Good news is Melania’s speech got more publicity than any in the history of politics especially if you believe that all press is good press!” Trump boasted on Twitter. Melania Trump gave a speech Monday which included parts that [sounded eerily similar to a 2008 speech that Michelle Obama gave](http://time.com/4412175/republican-convention-melania-trump-michelle-obama/) at the Democratic National Convention—it was later found to have used several phrases from the First Lady’s speech. The incident caused a stir, [spawning several internet memes](http://time.com/4412372/melania-trump-speech-criticism-michelle-obama/) and [plenty of fodder for the late night talk shows](http://time.com/4414606/melania-trump-plagiarism-stephen-colbert/). On Wednesday, a Trump Organization staffer [took responsibility for cribbing Obama’s words](https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/MeredithStatement.pdf). > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/755787159735570432) The [newly-minted Republican presidential nominee](http://time.com/4414098/donald-trump-nominee-president-republican-convention/) followed up with a jab at opponent Hillary Clinton. “The media is spending more time doing a forensic analysis of Melania’s speech than the FBI spent on Hillary’s emails,” he said. The investigation, [which just ended](http://time.com/4395960/hillary-clinton-email-investigation-no-charges-justice-department/), into Clinton’s emails lasted about a year, after it was found out that Clinton used a private email server during her time as a Secretary of State, which may have compromised classified materials. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4415073/donald-trump-melania-trumprnc-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4415073/donald-trump-melania-trumprnc-speech/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Defends Melania's RNC Speech","datePublished":"2016-07-20T16:42:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:24:07.220Z","description":"The Republican presidential nominee tweeted his support Wednesday","url":"https://time.com/4415073/donald-trump-melania-trumprnc-speech/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump","Republican National Convention"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6c159dfa707cbd5/69889c813c163963cb45e167/landon-nordeman-republican-national-convention-rnc-scenes-0718-12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb6c159dfa707cbd5/69889c813c163963cb45e167/landon-nordeman-republican-national-convention-rnc-scenes-0718-12.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL RNC","caption":"Donald Trump kisses hios wife Melania at the 2016 Republican National Convention on Monday, July 18, 2016, in Cleveland.","creditText":"Landon Nordeman for TIME","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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4415073/donald-trump-melania-trumprnc-speech/","name":"Donald Trump Defends Melania's RNC Speech"}}]}] ```