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Meredith McIver

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Meredith McIver
Born1950 or 1951 (age 73–74)[1]
NationalityAmerican
EducationBachelor of English
Alma materUniversity of Utah (1976)
Occupations
  • Writer
  • editor
Political partyRepublican

Meredith McIver (born 1950/51) is a staff writer for The Trump Organization, an author, and a former ballerina.[1][2] She is credited with ghostwriting multiple books by Donald Trump and was described in 2007 as an "assistant" to him.[3][4][5]

Early life

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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.[6] She later earned an English degree at the University of Utah, graduating with honors in 1976.[6][7]

Professional dancer

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In 1981, McIver appeared on Broadway in the revival of Can-Can, a production which closed after five performances.[8]

Trump affiliation

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In the 2000s, McIver worked with Donald Trump as both an assistant and as a ghostwriter.[4][5] She co-authored Trump: Think Like a Billionaire (2005) and several other books, with Trump.[4][9]

2007 Trump deposition

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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.[1][10]

Speech plagiarism controversy

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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.[11] The speech included plagiarized passages from a Michelle Obama speech.[12][13]

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."[14]

The Trump family declined McIver's offer to resign over the incident.[15][16]

Selected works

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Horowitz, Jason (July 20, 2016). "Behind Melania Trump's Cribbed Lines, an Ex-Ballerina Who Loved Writing". The New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  2. ^ Fox, Emily Jane (July 20, 2016). "Is a Ballerina to Blame for Melania Trump's Plagiarized Speech?". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  3. ^ "Meredith McIver | Official Publisher Page". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c Queenan, Joe (March 20, 2005). "Ghosts in the Machine". The New York Times. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  5. ^ a b Wood, Gaby (January 7, 2007). "Donald Trump: the interview". The Guardian. London. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  6. ^ a b Chan, Melissa (July 20, 2016). "Who Is Melania Trump's Speech Writer Meredith McIver?". TIME. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  7. ^ Phillips, Amber (July 20, 2016). "Who is Meredith McIver, the Trump staffer who took the fall for Melania's speech?". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  8. ^ Dale, Michael (July 21, 2016). "Trump Speechwriter Meredith McIver Was Once a Broadway Baby". Broadway World. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  9. ^ Copy, Jack (April 11, 2011). "Donald Trump likes to send notes to editors, compare bestseller stacks". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  10. ^ "Deposition of Donald J. Trump" (PDF). DocumentCloud. December 19, 2007. pp. 116–125. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  11. ^ Haberman, Maggie (July 19, 2016). "How Melania Trump's Speech Veered Off Course and Caused an Uproar". The New York Times. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  12. ^ Dvorsky, George (July 20, 2016). "Scientific Proof That Melania Trump's Speech Was Definitely Stolen From Michelle Obama". Gizmodo. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  13. ^ Muise, Monique (July 19, 2016). "Chances that Melania Trump didn't plagiarize Michelle Obama 1 in 87 billion: expert". Global News. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  14. ^ "Trump speechwriter takes blame for Melania Trump's speech". Associated Press. July 20, 2016. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  15. ^ Diamond, Jeremy (July 20, 2016). "Trump aide offers resignation in Melania Trump plagiarism incident". CNN. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  16. ^ "You decide: Did Melania plagiarize Michelle's '08 speech?". Fox News. July 19, 2016. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  17. ^ Shea, Jim (April 4, 2004). "Trump's powers: The Donald cashes in". Toledo Blade. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  18. ^ a b c d e Tatum, Sophie (July 21, 2016). "Who is Meredith McIver?". CNN. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  19. ^ "Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know about Success, Real Estate, and Life (review)". Publishers Weekly. October 1, 2004. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
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