Plagiarist Melania Trump Will Do PR for Plagiarism Machines

McIver, who identified herself as an “in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization” and also “a longtime friend and admirer” of the Trumps, explained Wednesday, “In working with Melania Trump on her recent First Lady speech, we discussed many people who inspired her and messages she wanted to share with the American people.”

Notably, McIver said Mrs. Trump had identified that “a person she has always liked is Michelle Obama.”

“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,” she wrote. “I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches. This was my mistake, and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama. No harm was meant.”

If you ask me, Trump reading Obama’s speeches to someone who jotted them down and then handed them back to her in a speech is the original LLM.

But Melania thinks now is the time to support the plagiarism engines, which are kind of like the first airplanes. “In just a few short years, AI will be the engine driving every business sector across our economy. It is poised to deliver great value to our careers, families, and communities,” she said. “Just as America once led the world into the skies with the Wright Brothers, we are poised to lead again—this time in the age of AI.”

In other Melania news, Mark Guiducci, the new editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, is reportedly considering putting her on the cover of the storied magazine.

But Page Six says Melania laughed off a purported request in July because she’s too busy. For whatever it’s worth, this item was written by the same Post person who had the AI exclusive. Here’s a snippet:

A fashion source familiar with the First Lady’s thinking says she “laughed” at the Vanity Fair request in July and rejected it immediately.

“She doesn’t have time to be sitting in a photo shoot. Her priorities as First Lady are far more important … These people don’t deserve her anyway.”

That’s right, Vanity Fair, Melania is too busy encouraging children to rip off other people’s work.

More barf:

• Multple high-level officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quit after Health Secretary RFK Jr. tried to fire the CDC director, Susan Monarez, because she reportedly wouldn’t go along with changes RFK wanted to make to covid vaccine recommendations. [The Guardian]
• The CDC named RFK deputy Jim O’Neill as its acting director, even though he has no training in medicine. O’Neill is “a biotech investor and speechwriter for the health department during the George W Bush administration” and “a longtime associate of billionaire investor Peter Thiel.” Reassuring! [The Guardian/Mother Jones]
• The Department of Homeland Security is trying to bar aid groups that receive federal disaster funds, including the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, from assisting undocumented immigrants. [Washington Post]
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency suspended about 30 workers who signed a letter saying that the Trump administration had gutted the country’s ability to respond to natural disasters. [New York Times]
• The Air Force is offering a full military funeral to Ashli Babbitt, the insurrectionist veteran who was shot to death after she tried to break into the House chamber on January 6. [NBC News]
• The White House is threatening to cut sex ed funding unless states remove references to “gender ideology“—aka acknowledging the existence of trans and nonbinary people. [The Guardian]
• Trump wants to rename the Department of Defense the “Department of War.” He can list that on his application for the Nobel Peace Prize. [CBS News]
• Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard revoked the security clearance of an undercover CIA officer who spied on Russia and published their name online—apparently without meaningfully consulting the CIA first. [Wall Street Journal]
• Denmark accused three Americans with ties to Trump of conducting “covert influence operations” in Greenland. [New York Times]
• Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office keep trying to indict people for protesting Trump’s shock troops in Washington, D.C., and grand juries keep saying “No ❤️.” [New York Times/WUSA9]
• The White House is taking credit for Cracker Barrel putting the cracker back in its logo. [Politico]
• Gross: “Ex-MLB star Mark Teixeira running for Congress to “defend’ Trump’s agenda.” [USAToday]
• There are 50 members of Congress up for reelection in 2026 who are at least 75 years old, and nearly 70% say they plan to run again. The vast majority of that group are Democrats. [NOTUS]

This has been your weekly Barf Bag, thanks for reading!

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