Melania Trump's Plagiarized Speech

On July 18, 2017, the Republican National Convention was held at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Many reporters were quick to notice the similarity between Melania Trump’s speech and previous speech recited by Michelle Obama over eight years ago. Many people accused Melania of deceiving the people of America, but Melania herself was also deceived by her speechwriter. In Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s book titled A Code of Jewish Ethics: Volume 1: You Shall Be Holy, he writes about the Jewish laws surrounding the idea of deceiving others and lying to prevent future harm. Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life by Sissela Bok explains how political lies are not trivial because they affect many people. Melania Trump’s plagiarized speech

and Mrs. Trump view “themselves as high-minded and well-bred… and superior to those who they deceive.” Plato used the expression noble lie in order to persuade people to accept certain laws or ideas. Deceit is often used by politicians for the sake of convincing people to think a certain way. In many public situations, “deception takes place when the government regards the public as frightened, hostile, or volatile.” Government leaders have the most power since they have the freedom to manipulate and distort facts without the public knowing. Melania Trump tried to persuade the public to believe that her speech was her own words, but failed. “Political representatives or entire government arrogate to themselves the right to lie” in public situations. They have to need to deceive the entirety of the public in order to hide the truth. Although the Trump campaign knew “that a "team of writers" included "fragments" of other peoples' writing in Melania Trump's speech,” she said that “she had largely written her own speech… with as little help as possible.” This is a form of a white lie because it is obvious that she took sentences from Michelle Obama’s speech. According to Sissela Bok, “political lies, so often assumed to be trivial by those who tell them, rarely are.” Political lies affect many people which allows political representatives to “take power from the public that would not have been given up voluntarily.” Deception is believed by many people, especially if told by someone with power. Melania Trump was able to deceive the public by using “word-for-word repetition of phrases and borrowed themes from Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic convention eight years