正如我们之前所记录的，越是小冲突，唐纳德·特朗普和他周围的人就会以最荒谬的方式为冲突辩护。例如，当梅拉尼娅·特朗普（Melania Trump）在昨天的共和党全国****上的一次演讲中明显抄袭了第一夫人米歇尔·奥巴马（Michelle Obama）时，她很可能会用一个安静的不表态来置之不理。但以其标志性的方式，这场运动的回应是一系列越来越好战的理由，从模糊到完全令人困惑。

有些人会（而且确实）争辩说，这是一种出色的误导形式，把人们的注意力从昨天在大会上表现出来的恶毒的仇外心理上移开。但与明显丑陋的声音片段不同的是，剽窃是懒惰和不道德的行为，竞选活动不能像直截了当的实用主义者、勇敢的反传统主义者或“政治上不正确的人”那样进行。致命的罪行至少显示出动机和主动性。轻松的只是悲伤。

只会变得更糟。

这不是剽窃，只是剽窃

竞选团队对特朗普涉嫌抄袭的第一反应，来自高级传播顾问杰森·米勒（Jason Miller），基本上是政治演讲稿作者版本的“但一切都是混音”

"In writing her beautiful speech, Melania’s team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirati***, 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."

撇开梅拉尼娅·特朗普从她丈夫的死敌巴拉克·奥巴马的妻子那里获得生活灵感的观点不谈，这是剽窃的字面定义：从外部来源汲取思想和语言，并声称它们是你自己的。尽管如此，这和竞选活动得到的一样好——含蓄地承认，是的，发生了一些不好的事情，但这并不是什么大事。

这不是剽窃，只是同一个词在同一个顺序

第二天早上，在美国有线电视新闻网，特朗普竞选经理保罗马纳福特认为这是太软。声称整件事都是克林顿**的争议，他说梅拉尼娅·特朗普抄袭奥巴马的想法是“疯狂的”

"There was a process, certainly, of collaboration. Certainly, there's no feeling on her part that she did it. What she did was use words that are common words."

你知道还有什么常用词吗？”“是”、“是”、“不是”、“是”和“是”

以下是据称抄袭特朗普讲话的主要部分：

My parents impressed on me the values: that you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise. That you treat people with respect. They taught me to show the values and morals in my daily life. That is the lesson that I continue to pass along to our son.

And we need to pass those less*** on to the many generati*** to follow. Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

奥巴马：

And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them.

And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

这场运动是正确的，两次演讲都触及了共同的主题，如家庭的重要性。这不是重点。事实上有很多关于魔法的年轻人的书并不意味着我可以重写哈利波特。

这不是剽窃，除非你真的发明了英语

跟进马纳福特的主题，特朗普助手卡特里娜·皮尔森基本上告诉希尔，如果你想抱怨剽窃，最好不要使用现有的语言，你这个大跟风者。

"These are values, Republican values by the way, of hard work, determination, family values, dedication and respect, and that's Melania Trump. This concept that Michelle Obama invented the English language is absurd."

一方面，这与其说是夸张，还不如说是故意混淆问题的一个完全的非序曲。另一方面，我完全支持要求每个政党在每次选举期间发展自己的政党。

皮尔森接着指出，当时的第一夫人劳拉·布什（Laura Bush）在2004年的一次演讲中提到了与奥巴马类似的话题，但这座山挖出的是散布在文章中的几条间接线。同样，这也是“八十七年前，我们的先辈在这块大陆上建立了一个新的国家”和“美国于1776年建立”之间的区别

不是剽窃，是我的小马

不仅仅是特朗普阵营的成员参与进来。再次在CNN上，RNC首席策略师肖恩·斯派塞（Sean Spicer）说，就我们所知，梅拉尼娅·特朗普（Melania Trump）真的可能是在抄袭我的小马。

"Melania Trump said ‘[We want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is] the strength of your dreams and willingness to work for them.’ Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony said, ‘this is your dream — anything you can do in your dreams, you can do now.’ [...] I mean, if we want to take a bunch of phrases and run them through Google and see who else has said them, I could come up with a list in five minutes."

当然，暮光闪耀是在谈论一个真实的清醒的梦境，显然是“恶毒的活蛋糕”，这是我们在过去一天里听到的同样的虚假对等。但老实说，这是其中一个原因最糟糕的借口：它让我意识到，如果大会演讲基本上是虚构的，我宁愿听儿童电视节目的剧本，也不愿一个对班加西的吹毛求疵的叙述。尽管事情迄今为止都是超现实的，但这可能不在桌子上。