Did Trump steal lines from Hollywood movies for his inaugural speech?

In the last three days, memes have been going viral on social media claiming that Trump plagiarised sections of his speech. But this time, social media got it mostly wrong.

Did Trump himself write his speech? The answer is no. President Trump's address was penned by two of his closest aides, his chief strategist Steve Bannon, and senior advisor Stephen Miller, a White House official told The Wall Street Journal.

So did Trump lift lines from a bunch of Hollywood movies? Let's put the three biggest claims to the test.

CLAIM: Trump plagiarised this quote from the 2007 animated family comedy Bee Movie.

VERDICT: False. The quote attributed to Barry B. Benson wasn't in the Bee Movie.

CLAIM: Trump stole these lines from the character Colonel Miles Quaritch in the 2009 science fiction film Avatar.

VERDICT: False again. There is no record of such a quote from Colonel Miles Quaritch in the Avatar script.

CLAIM: Trump copied lines from Batman supervillain Bane's speech in the 2012 action blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises.

VERDICT: Somewhat true and more of a case of semantics. Some say it's probably a "vague coincidence".

Talking about the transfer of power, Trump promised to take America back from the elites and give it to "the people." Similarly Bane, referring to the fictional city of Gotham, says he is taking it back from "the corrupt, the rich...oppressors" and handing it to "the people."

Video mash-ups showing the similarities have racked up millions of views online. This is what some had to say on Twitter:

This isn't the first time Trump's campaign has faced plagiarism claims. In Melania Trump's first major political speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention, there were striking similarities between her lines and Michelle Obama's address from the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Author: Mohamed Taha