The Trump team was quick to deny the Melania Trump’s latest speech was plagiarized. They noted that “four score and seven years ago” is a common way of saying “eighty seven.” Eighty seven is just a common number they observed, nothing special about it. Further, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort noted that the phrase “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” is a phrase in the public domain that is not protected by any copyrights. When asked about her references to being “engaged in a great civil war,” and being “met on a great battlefield of that war,” Manafort suggested that she was referring metaphorically of the Republican National Convention as a “battlefield” in the “civil war” between True Americans and the supporters of diseased, criminal immigrants. Reporters then asked, about her assertion that “In a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.” Was that her own wording? Yes indeed, Manafort replied: “She is eloquent in four languages, and is quite the wordsmith.” What about the phrase, “the last full measure of devotion?” Doesn’t that sound familiar? “Well,” said Manafort, “it may seem familiar to you, but I guarantee you that it was not familiar to the attendees of the Convention.” Finally, reporters queried her stirring conclusion, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” Were these not, in fact, the concluding words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address? “Let me explain it this way,” said Manafort: “Shut up.”