Melania Trump stirred up a great deal of controversy after journalist Jarrett Hill discovered that several portions of her speech at the Republican National Convention Monday night seemed to have been lifted from Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. For two days, it appeared as if nobody would take responsibility for this apparent plagiarism. But on Wednesday, July 20, the Trump Organization released a statement attributed to the speechwriter. Unfortunately for her, however, a new scandal has come into being: Does Meredith McIver actually exist? Not everyone is certain that Melania Trump's supposed speechwriter is real.
Perhaps some of the doubt stems from the fact that on at least two previous occasions, Donald Trump made up PR people who were actually just him. Or maybe they're suspicious because a Facebook page for McIver seemed to have been created on Wednesday, shortly after the statement was released. (In the statement, McIver apologized for her mistake, and said that the Trump campaign rejected her resignation.) Either way, many Twitter users would not put it past Trump to invent a speechwriter. So is McIver real, or isn't she? Bustle reached out to the Trump campaign to get to the bottom of this, but they declined to comment.
Luckily, The New York Times offered readers a detailed bio of the writer which seemed to prove that she is real. McIver is reportedly the daughter of ballroom dancers, and studied at the School of American Ballet before going on to graduate as an English major from the University of Utah. Over the course of her career, she has co-written multiple books with Trump, who referred to her as a "terrific woman" in an interview with the Times Wednesday.
But the Times wasn't able to reach McIver for comment, so some people are still not convinced that she exists:
It got even better when some Twitter users alluded to Trump's birther libel:
Meanwhile, others had a good time poking fun at the whole situation, especially because nobody seems to be able to get in touch with McIver:
But then there was this:
It looks like someone found some proof that she existed before today! It is admittedly bizarre that social media channels claiming to be McIver only cropped up today, but the most likely explanation is that she just wasn't on social media to begin with. No, it seems like McIver actually is real, and that she actually did plagiarize parts of Michelle Obama's 2008 speech while helping Melania Trump write her own. If anything, a lot more people know who she is now, so there's something to be said for these conspiracies.
