Stephanie Grisham, chief of staff and spokeswoman for Melania Trump, said the first lady’s speech to the Republican National Convention will not be plagiarized.
“Every word in this speech is from her,” Grisham assured MSNBC on Tuesday. She made the remark after the program’s host, Hallie Jackson, asked about Trump’s last convention speech, where a few lines were overtly similar to ones from Michelle Obama’s 2008 remarks before the Democratic National Convention.
“I think that it’s been very, very clear that over the last 3 1/2 years, Mrs. Trump has done nothing but learn and grow in this role, and she’s been doing a fantastic job at that. We’ve been working really hard the last three weeks,” Grisham said. She added that the speech would be “very authentic” and that it would “come from the heart.”
Meredith McIver, who worked with Trump on her 2016 RNC speech, apologized for including some phrases from Obama’s speech, calling it “mistake.”
The first lady is slated to speak on Tuesday from the Rose Garden, a choice that has come with some controversy. Tradition dictates that the White House not be used as a backdrop for overly partisan activities. When asked if the convention speech was the reason for the first lady’s recent update to the garden, unveiled on Saturday, Grisham responded that it wasn’t.
“She’s been working on that renovation for easily six, seven months talking to horticulturists and [architects] and historians. The Rose Garden was in need of this renewal,” she said.
Grisham, who also served as White House press secretary from July 2019 through early April, mentioned that Trump’s speech will include a portion about her “Be Best” campaign geared toward speaking out against cyberbullying. Jackson raised the point that “her husband will be in the audience, and yet to some, he may be, in fact, the exact person who needs to hear that message the most.”
The spokeswoman responded, “Well, I mean, then it’s a good thing his wife is up there talking,” further arguing that the first lady’s remarks would be a wider message to the public and not just to an “audience of one.”
Grisham was also asked about a new book from a former adviser to the first lady, Stephanie Wolkoff. Sources told media reporter Yashar Ali that Wolkoff taped conversations with the first lady in which she made disparaging remarks about her family.
“I’ve never heard Mrs. Trump say anything disparaging about the family,” Grisham responded.
