Ivanka Trump has been accused of self-plagiarism at the Republican national convention after her heartwarming Lego anecdote sounded strikingly familiar – but there may be more to her story than she has been given credit for.
On Thursday she said: “When Jared and I moved with our three children to Washington, we didn’t exactly know what we were in for. But our kids loved it from the start. My son Joseph promptly built grandpa a Lego replica of the White House. The president still displays it on the mantel in the Oval Office and shows it to world leaders, just so they know he has the greatest grandchildren on earth.”
People observed the similarity to a story that Ivanka Trump had told previously about herself. Andrea Bernstein, a WNYC reporter who wrote the book American Oligarchs about the Trumps, noted that in 2007 Ivanka said she had once made a Lego model of Trump Tower for her father, only to have it criticised by him several days later because it wasn’t accurate enough. Bernstein also cast doubt about the veracity of the earlier story.
Andrea Bernstein
(@AndreaWNYC)
OMG, Ivanka is telling a story about her son Joseph building a lego model of the White House. She told the same story about herself once, building a lego Trump Tower.
The story was made up.
AMERICAN OLIGARCHS, P 176 pic.twitter.com/hwGR2q43Q1
August 28, 2020
There is, however, photographic evidence that, as recently as March 2019 at least, there was a Lego model of the White House in the White House.
And the president has even posed with it.
Carolina Hurley
(@CLH45)
I absolutely cannot believe that reporters are really trying to cast doubt on the validity of a 6 year old’s gift to his grandfather.
Be better. https://t.co/t3qIh9rWTo pic.twitter.com/uL42qJjpg1
August 28, 2020
It doesn’t look to be the official Lego replica of the White House available as part of its Architecture series, aimed more at adults than children. Although there is a previous smaller Lego version of the White House which it resembles. The model is slightly out of date, as it does not feature Melania Trump’s much-maligned remodelled rose garden.
The first lady also had her social media moment in the spotlight on the final night of the convention, wearing a dress that easily allowed her to be “green-screened”. The internet soon went to work and before long she appeared variously to be endorsing Joe Biden, the nation’s coronavirus death toll, and the weather.
Scott Brown
(@ScottBrownDC)
Everyone will be talking about Melania’s dress after this is all over. #RNC2020 pic.twitter.com/KosqGenMwc
August 28, 2020
Parker Molloy
(@ParkerMolloy)
Gorgeous dress pic.twitter.com/JV0Da0RLrU
August 28, 2020
Jøhn
(@TheJohnChristie)
pic.twitter.com/rLyKJJHonF
August 28, 2020
If there were an award for awkward moment of the night, it would have to go to this exchange between Ivanka and Melania Trump. There had been reports this week that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff taped the first lady making “harsh comments” about her fellow Trumps.
Jon Cooper 🇺🇸
(@joncoopertweets)
Makes you wonder what Ivanka whispered to Melania as she passed by. pic.twitter.com/v43wkZM0yH
August 28, 2020
Still, no social media mirth could distract from the fact Republicans had dished up four days filled with apocalyptic predictions for the US should the country not re-elect Donald Trump, in a series of speeches littered with falsehoods, many delivered by members of his family.
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