Meredith McIver
{{short description|Ghostwriter for Donald Trump}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox person
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| name = Meredith McIver
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| birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date |65 |2016|7|20}}
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| party = Republican
| nationality = American
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| education = Bachelor of English
| alma_mater = University of Utah (1976)
| occupation = {{Flatlist|
- Writer
- editor
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Meredith McIver (born 1950/51) is a staff writer for The Trump Organization, an author, and a former ballerina.{{cite news |last=Horowitz |first=Jason |date=July 20, 2016 |title=Behind Melania Trump's Cribbed Lines, an Ex-Ballerina Who Loved Writing |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/us/politics/melania-trump-speech-meredith-mciver.html |accessdate=July 21, 2016}}{{cite web |last=Fox |first=Emily Jane |date=July 20, 2016 |title=Is a Ballerina to Blame for Melania Trump's Plagiarized Speech? |work=Vanity Fair |url=http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/07/melania-trump-rnc-speech-ballerina |accessdate=July 20, 2016}} She is credited with ghostwriting multiple books by Donald Trump and was described in 2007 as an "assistant" to him.{{cite web |title=Meredith McIver | Official Publisher Page |publisher=Simon & Schuster |url=http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Meredith-McIver/24050765 |accessdate=July 20, 2016}}{{cite web |last=Queenan |first=Joe |date=March 20, 2005 |title=Ghosts in the Machine |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/books/review/ghosts-in-the-machine.html?_r=0 |accessdate=July 22, 2016}}{{cite news |last=Wood |first=Gaby |date=January 7, 2007 |title=Donald Trump: the interview |location=London |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2007/jan/07/media.citynews |accessdate=July 20, 2016 }}
Early life
McIver is originally from San Jose, California and moved to New York City at age 14 on a Ford Foundation Scholarship for dance. In New York, McIver trained at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet during the summers of 1965 and 1966, and was enrolled full-time in the advanced division courses at the School of American Ballet 1967–70.{{cite magazine |last=Chan |first=Melissa |date=July 20, 2016 |title=Who Is Melania Trump's Speech Writer Meredith McIver? |magazine=TIME |url=https://time.com/4415378/meredith-mciver-donald-trump-speech/|access-date=July 21, 2016}} She later earned an English degree at the University of Utah, graduating with honors in 1976.{{cite news |last=Phillips |first=Amber |date=July 20, 2016 |title=Who is Meredith McIver, the Trump staffer who took the fall for Melania's speech? |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/20/who-is-meredith-mciver-the-trump-staffer-who-took-the-fall-for-melanias-speech/ |accessdate=July 21, 2016}}
Professional dancer
In 1981, McIver appeared on Broadway in the revival of Can-Can, a production which closed after five performances.{{cite news |last=Dale |first=Michael |date=July 21, 2016 |title=Trump Speechwriter Meredith McIver Was Once a Broadway Baby |work=Broadway World |url=http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Trump-Speechwriter-Meredith-McIver-Was-Once-a-Broadway-Baby-20160721 |accessdate=July 23, 2016 }}
Trump affiliation
In the 2000s, McIver worked with Donald Trump as both an assistant and as a ghostwriter. She co-authored Trump: Think Like a Billionaire (2005) and several other books, with Trump.{{cite news|last1=Copy|first1=Jack|title=Donald Trump likes to send notes to editors, compare bestseller stacks|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/04/donald-trump-from-good-paper-stock-to-bad.html|accessdate=28 July 2016|work=Los Angeles Times|date=11 April 2011}}
= 2007 Trump deposition =
In 2007, in a deposition in a defamation lawsuit he brought against Timothy L. O'Brien, Donald Trump named McIver as the likely author, in two books they wrote together, of overstated claims of his indebtedness in the midst of the 1990s real estate market crash, making his financial comeback appear more significant.{{cite web |url=https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2430267/trumps-lawsuit-on-net-worth.pdf |title=Deposition of Donald J. Trump |author= |pages=116–125 |date=December 19, 2007 |accessdate=July 23, 2016 |quote= |publisher=DocumentCloud }}
= Speech plagiarism controversy =
{{See also|2016 Republican National Convention#Melania Trump's speech and plagiarism controversy}}
In July 2016, McIver contributed to a speech for Melania Trump, which Mrs. Trump read at the 2016 Republican National Convention on July 19, 2016.{{cite news |last=Haberman |first=Maggie |date=July 19, 2016 |title=How Melania Trump's Speech Veered Off Course and Caused an Uproar |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/us/politics/melania-trump-convention-speech.html |accessdate=July 20, 2016}} The speech included plagiarized passages from a Michelle Obama speech.{{cite web |last=Dvorsky |first=George |date=July 20, 2016 |title=Scientific Proof That Melania Trump's Speech Was Definitely Stolen From Michelle Obama |work=Gizmodo |url=https://gizmodo.com/scientific-proof-that-melania-trump-s-speech-was-defini-1783966093 |accessdate=July 20, 2016}}{{cite web |last=Muise |first=Monique |date=July 19, 2016 |title=Chances that Melania Trump didn't plagiarize Michelle Obama 1 in 87 billion: expert |work=Global News |url=http://globalnews.ca/news/2834389/chances-that-melania-trump-didnt-plagiarize-michelle-obama-1-in-87-billion-expert/ |accessdate=July 20, 2016}}
McIver later issued a statement explaining that Melania Trump had shared with her a passage from Obama's 2008 convention speech as an example of her feelings. Due to a misunderstanding, McIver thought the passage expressed Mrs. Trump's own thinking, so she included that passage in the speech. In a statement McIver said the following according to the Associated Press; "Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech."{{cite web |title=Trump speechwriter takes blame for Melania Trump's speech |work=Associated Press |date=July 20, 2016 |url=https://apnews.com/article/6e41453d531346bd8faec8dc1d6d790a |accessdate=March 14, 2022}}
The Trump family declined McIver's offer to resign over the incident.{{cite news |last=Diamond |first=Jeremy |date=July 20, 2016 |title=Trump aide offers resignation in Melania Trump plagiarism incident |work=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/20/politics/trump-aide-offers-resignation-in-melania-trump-plagiarism-incident/index.html |accessdate=July 20, 2016}}{{cite web |title=You decide: Did Melania plagiarize Michelle's '08 speech? |work=Fox News |date=July 19, 2016 |url=http://video.foxnews.com/v/5041589176001/you-decide-did-melania-plagiarize-michelles-08-speech/?#sp=show-clips |accessdate=July 21, 2016}}
Selected works
- Trump: How to Get Rich with Donald J. Trump (2004){{cite web |last=Shea |first=Jim |date=April 4, 2004 |title=Trump's powers: The Donald cashes in |work=Toledo Blade |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=20040404&id=S2xPAAAAIBAJ&pg=6373,1038510&hl=en |accessdate=July 22, 2016}}
- Trump: Think Like a Billionaire with Donald J. Trump (2004){{cite web |date=October 1, 2004 |title=Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know about Success, Real Estate, and Life (review) |work=Publishers Weekly |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4000-6355-0 |accessdate=July 22, 2016}}
- Trump 101: The Way to Success with Donald J. Trump (2006){{cite web |last=Tatum |first=Sophie |date=July 21, 2016 |title=Who is Meredith McIver? |work=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/20/politics/meredith-mciver-who-melania-trump-speech/ |accessdate=July 22, 2016}}
- Why We Want You to Be Rich with Donald J. Trump, Robert T. Kiyosaki, and Sharon L. Lechter (2006)
- Trump: Never Give Up with Donald J. Trump (2008)
References
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Category:21st-century American writers
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign
Category:People associated with the 2016 United States presidential election
Category:School of American Ballet alumni
Category:The Trump Organization employees