Who Is Meredith McIver? What Is Known About The Writer Behind Melania Trump’s Speech Mishap

A few days ago, before Melania Trump took the stage at the Republican National Convention in what began as triumph and ended in scandal, the name Meredith McIver was not well-known. Now, the former ballerina who decided to pursue her lifelong passion for writing has finally found fame for that passion — although probably not in the way she imagined.

Meredith McIver is the writer who penned Melania Trump’s speech, which has been under heavy fire for its obvious plagiarism.

Now, after McIver admitted that she wrote the speech and borrowed heavily from the speech of First Lady Michelle Obama, a woman whom Melania Trump is openly admiring, Meredith McIver, who she is, her past and background, and whether or not the speech she wrote was even legal under campaign laws are all being scrutinized. There have even been questions about whether Meredith McIver even exists, or if she has been manufactured simply to take the fall for Melania Trump’s Republican National Convention speech.

But she does exist. Meredith McIver is actually a long-time, loyal employee of the Trump Organization. And this isn’t even the first time she’s written something for the Trumps. McIver is listed as a co-author on at least five of Donald Trump’s books. The list includes Trump: Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Success, Trump: How to Get Rich, Trump: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life, Trump 101: The Way to Success, and Why We Want You to Be Rich, according to Amazon.

She is almost certainly not a manufactured character, resurrected simply to take the fall for Melania Trump’s speech mishap. Here’s what is known about Meredith McIver.

#MeredithMcIver exists. 10 years ago I met her, checked her ID, got her business card and corresponded with her pic.twitter.com/9TyOcx3RZa

— ?? Christopher Zullo (@ChrisJZullo) July 21, 2016

In her mid-sixties, McIver has been employed as an in-house staff writer for the Trump Organization since 2001, according to her biography on the All American Speakers Bureau website. And McIver sees herself as more than just an employee. In her statement, McIver referred to herself as a “longtime friend and admirer of the Trump family.” She and Melania Trump worked together to create the speech, McIver said in her statement, but it was her fault that the passages attributed to Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech remained virtually intact in Melania Trump’s speech.

Certainly there seems to be a familiar connection between the Trumps and McIver. As The Inquisitr reported, Donald Trump declined McIver’s resignation over the plagiarized speech, brushing it off as a mistake that can be learned from.

I’ve had many dealings with @realDonaldTrump‘s aide Meredith McIver. Very smart, very loyal lady. Feel for her. https://t.co/QRtnHrqLCW

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 20, 2016

Meredith McIver is a former ballerina who was classically trained but had studied English and always had a passion for writing, the New York Times reports. She danced with Balanchine and in Broadway musicals, but in her 30s, she found herself slowed by injuries, and she traded in her slippers for the pen, writing stories and poems while working in advertising copy, utilizing the discipline she learned in dancing to help launch her new career in writing.

“She’s adept at crystallizing phrases and saying things in an elegant straightforward way,” said an ex-boyfriend. “She was always very, very interested in writing as an art form.”

CNN reports that McIver trained at George Balachine’s School of American Ballet, starting at age of 14, but she also majored in English, graduating with honors from the University of Utah.

A long-time friend of McIver says that Meredith has always given meticulous attention to detail and questions whether or not Meredith, who is a registered Democrat and has no political experience at all, truly wrote that speech. Pointing to McIver’s meticulousness, he stated that “it sounds like she sort of stepped up and fell on her sword.”

If that’s the case, then she truly is an incredibly loyal employee.

For more on Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention, click here.

[Photo by Mark J. Terrill/AP Images]