Melania Trump Can't Stop Copying the Obamas

Melania Trump's cyberbullying initiative may not be as new as she claims, with a pamphlet about online safety for children bearing more than a striking resemblance to a 2014 pamphlet by the Federal Trade Commission released under Obama.

Announcing her initiative on Monday, the interestingly named "Be Best" campaign, which is similar to former first lady Michelle Obama's "be better" advice to men in 2016, Melania said the campaign was aimed at helping the "most vulnerable and fragile among us: our children."

But the similarities between her "Be Best" pamphlet and a 2014 pamphlet from the Federal Trade Commission did not go unnoticed; in fact, Melania's pamphlet was an almost identical page-by-page printout of the FTC's document, bar a few small changes, Slate Magazine reported.

Following the release of the pamphlet, social media was awash with people pointing out the similarities, suggesting Melania had once again appeared to plagiarize something—in a reference to her speech at the Republican National Convention, a paragraph of which was almost a word-for-word repetition of a speech given by Michelle Obama in 2008.

At the time, Melania said she had written her speech "with as little help as possible," although her speechwriter said Melania had read her extracts from the 2008 speech as examples of things she liked, while Trump's speechwriter said at the time that Melania had taken fragments of other speeches that "reflected her own thinking," The Guardian reported.

However, in the case of the very similar pamphlets, Melania's team appears happy to acknowledge the resemblance, explaining the first lady had updated the information because it was relevant to her cause.

But a spokesperson for the first lady told the New York Daily News that Melania had used the FTC guide as a reference point because it was "clearly related to the social media portion of Mrs. Trump's initiatives."

"It was updated and edited to reflect today's event and we were happy to be able to provide the children in attendance with such a resource," Stephanie Grisham told the publication.