Melania Trump has been accused of plagiarism again after a brochure published as a part of her "Be Best" initiative was discovered to closely resemble a similar one, published in 2014, during the presidency of Barack Obama, Donald Trump's predecessor.
The problem here, as netizens discovered, is that the booklet is basically the same as the one published in 2014. Both language and the pictures are mostly the same, according to reports by BBC and Washington Examiner.
As the BBC's screenshots tell, the name of the booklet has been derived from "Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online." While the graphic design remains mostly the same, all the smartphones appear to have been changed from four-button ones usually associated with Google's Android OS to single-button ones, looking very much like Apple's products.
The booklet was presented Monday as the First Lady launched her Be Best initiative, aimed at "supporting children and opening dialogue on issues affecting them."
Interestingly, the White House website initially said that the booklet was "by First Lady Melania Trump and the Federal Trade Commission." Later, this was changed to "a Federal Trade Commission booklet, promoted by First Lady Melania Trump."
"There seemed to be confusion, so we wanted to be clear," the White House told the Guardian.
The White House lashed out as the "opposition" media pointed out the similarities, saying the media takes "a day meant to promote kindness and positive efforts on behalf of children to instead lob baseless accusations towards the First Lady and her new initiatives."
The White House said that Melania had sought to used her position to "amplify" the text's positive message, BBC reports.
This is not the first time Trump has been accused of plagiarism. Back in 2016, a portion of Melania Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention was found to closely resemble former first lady Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention address.