Did Melania Trump Plagiarize Marla Maples During Main Line Rally Thursday?

Melania Trump held a rally on the Main Line Thursday afternoon, campaigning publicly for the first time since her controversial Michelle Obama-inspired speech at the Republican National Convention in July. But within the hour after her appearance Thursday, she was already receiving criticism for plagiarizing again, this time from Donald Trump's second wife, Marla Maples.

During her speech, Melania Trump spoke of her "small town" roots where she grew up in Slovenia. She then described what America meant to her and her family: "America meant, if you could dream it, you could become it."

The exact words, and context of those words, are identical to an interview which Maples gave with music magazine Maximum Ink in May of 2011.

"Even though I was from a small town of 500 people, I learned to dance, play clarinet, and play trumpet, all while playing every sport I was allowed to as a southern-born tomboy," Maples said. "I believed if you could dream it you could become it, so I didn’t see life as having any limitations."

The similarity was first uncovered by Yair Rosenberg, a writer for Jewish news outlet Tablet Magazine.

The "if you dream it, you could become it" phrase is also attributed to William Arthur Ward, a 20th century American poet and proverb writer.

A Trump campaign speechwriter, Meredith McIver, took full responsibility for the incident at the Republican National Convention in July. She offered her resignation to the Trump campaign, but it was rejected.

Patch has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment in regard to who wrote the speech given Thursday.

A full replay of Melania Trump's rally with Indiana First Lady Karen Pence in Berwyn Thursday is available below. The "if you dream it, you could become it" comments come at around the 1:04:15 mark of the video.

Image of Melania Trump Thursday in Berwyn via Youtube screenshot.