Former President Donald Trump issued a statement on Wednesday encouraging his fans to buy a recently released book by Fox News host Jesse Watters — and it immediately drew skepticism due to its coherence and post-fifth-grade vocabulary.
The statement, which was flagged by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, promotes Watters’s new book using vocabulary that is highly sophisticated compared to most other Trump statements.
“Interspersed are [Watters’s] thoughtful suggestions for overcoming left-wing radicalism, maintaining American democracy, moving beyond aging hippies (like his long-suffering, loving parents), saving the world from social justice warriors and the deep state — all while smirking his way through life in only the nicest way,” read the former president’s statement.
Haberman immediately wanted to know “who wrote this” statement, as did many of her followers.
“Donald Trump never, in his entire life, conceived of the phrase ‘interspersed are his thoughtful suggestions,'” wrote conservative Trump critic Tom Nichols in response.
Slate senior editor Jeremy Stahl, however, quickly discovered the answer: Trump plagiarized the description of Watters’s book directly from its publisher.
See a side-by-side comparison below.