Donald Trump’s wife Melania ‘did not copy first lady’

Donald Trump’s campaign team dismissed claims that the US presidential hopeful’s wife Melania lifted passages nearly word for word from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama, calling the complaints “just absurd”.

Mrs Trump spoke at the Republican National Convention on Monday night, and the passages in question focused on lessons she learned from her parents and their influence in her experience as a mother.

Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort told CNN: “There’s no cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech.