The Republican Party has offered a bizarre defence of the speech by Melania Trump that appeared to repeat the same lines as Michelle Obama had spoken during her address eight years earlier, pointing to the wise words of Sparkle from My Little Pony.

Trump was roundly criticised for what was dubbed 'plagiarism' after footage appeared of segments of the two speeches side by side, with similar phrasing and themes.

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But the Republican National Convention's chief strategist Sean Spicer defended Trump, stating the speech needed to be put in perspective.

"We had a 2,000 word statement, we're talking about 70 words, three passages," he said in an interview with CNN. "This idea of plagiarism, if we want to talk about it – let's talk about it.

"Melania Trump said 'you work hard for what you get in life', John Legend said 'work hard to be anything you want in life', Kid Rock said 'work hard to be anything you want in life.'

"Melania Trump said 'the strength of your dreams and the willingness to work for them', Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony said 'this is your dream, anything you can do in your dreams you can do now.'

"If we want to take a bunch of phrases and run them through Google and say who else has said them, I can come up with a bunch in five minutes – and this is what that is.

"It is sad that we have taken this amazing moment with the world introduction of Melania Trump and gone through and allowed the Clinton campaign to say we googled a bunch of phrases and matched it up to three things Mrs Obama said."

The phrasing of segments of the speech was almost a word-for-word repetition, and several videos have been made showing the pair speaking side by side, drawing widespread criticism for Trump.

In her speech, Trump said: "From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life: that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life."

In 2008, Obama addressed the Democrat Convention while her husband was on the campaign trail, stating: "Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them," according to a CNN transcript.

Challenged on the exact phrasing, Spicer insisted the Clinton campaign was to blame for the backlash against Trump's speech and added he felt the speech had 'hit it out of the park'.

"Look I just quoted Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony; she said something similar too, so did Mrs Obama plagiarise her too? I would never say that," said Spicer.

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