Mrs Trump took to the stage at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Monday to speak in support of her husband, presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump.
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White House officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday evening.
Until the parallels with Mrs. Obama’s speech were unearthed, the speech attracted widespread praise from TV pundits and applause from convention delegates who had earlier been in uproar after organisers tried to silence party critics of the outspoken property billionaire.
A senior Trump communications adviser, Jason Miller, acknowledged in a statement that Melania Trump’s team of writers “in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking”.
If Trump were to be elected president, Mrs. Trump would be the only first lady who is the third wife of a president and the first to be born and raised in a communist nation.
Considering today’s theme is “Make America Work Again”, it will be particularly interesting to see how everything works inside the Quicken Loans Arena.
“Let’s all come together in a national campaign like no other”, she said to cheers after her husband stepped on stage to introduce her, his image silhouetted against a misty white backdrop. “I wouldn’t”, Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said in one of the night’s most fiery addresses.
He also gave a hint of what his capstone speech will be like on Thursday night after introducing his wife Melania. He said he and the party would win “big” in the November general elections.
Members of the “Never Trump” group alleged that they were bullied by the party leadership.
Trump, whose name is to be formally offered for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday, saw the opening day of his convention on Monday turn from the raucous to the sublime.
Several hundred anti-Trump delegates seeking to change the Republican Convention rules so that they could opt out of voting for him roared their disapproval after being denied the chance to debate the changes.
Trump hoped the chaos would be little more than a footnote. In a matter of weeks, Americans have seen deadly police shootings, a shocking ambush of police in Texas and escalating racial tensions, not to mention a failed coup in Turkey and gruesome Bastille Day attack in Nice, France.
Safety was first on tap, and a succession of speakers cast Trump as the leader for perilous times and Clinton as the embodiment of a system that has left America vulnerable – or worse.
“Hillary Clinton can not be trusted”.
She said it may not be a smooth ride to the top. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.
Campaign chairman Paul Manafort said Trump would “eventually” outline policy specifics but not at the convention.
But the similarities between the speech of the current First Lady made in 2008 and the woman hoping to be her successor threatened to overshadow Republican hopes that Mrs Trump would help soften her husband’s image and appeal to more women voters.
Ann Romney delivered a detailed testimonial about Mitt Romney’s private side at the Republican convention in 2012, the sort of highly tailored speech that spouses have delivered for decades about presidential nominees.
Donald Trump’s reed-thin campaign staff, which served him well in the Republican primary contests, has started to grow in recent weeks.
Manafort, in remarks to reporters at a Bloomberg breakfast, called Kasich “petulant” and said the governor was “embarrassing” his party in his home state.
Even some of those participating in the convention seemed to be avoiding their party’s nominee.
Though he’s the official chairman of the convention, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin didn’t appear publicly on Monday.
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Ryan, asked at a later event whether Trump was really a conservative, said: “Define conservative; he’s not my kind of conservative”.
