Meredith McIver, a woman working for The Trump Organization, distributed a statement Wednesday identifying herself as the writer responsible for Melania Trump’s Republican convention speech.
McIver said she offered her resignation to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who declined to accept it.
“People make innocent mistakes,” she said he told her, adding,”We learn and grow from these experiences.”
But who is she?
Here’s what we know about the businessman’s wife’s speechwriter:
She describes herself as an in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization.
McIver identifies herself as an “in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization” in her resignation letter. The Trump Organization is separate from the campaign and is one of the business arms of Donald Trump’s empire. It includes his various hotels and is based out of New York. According to her biography on the All American Speakers Bureau website, she has been part of The Trump Organization since 2001.
She is a family friend of the Trumps
McIver said in the statement that she is a “longtime friend and admirer of the Trump family.” McIver and Melania Trump worked together to create the speech, McIver said in her statement.
She helped write some of Donald Trump’s books
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.”
She was blamed for errors in Trump’s books
According to a 2007 deposition for a civil lawsuit, Trump said McIver was to blame for several factual errors about Trump’s wealth in two of his books she helped co-write. “This is somebody that wrote it, probably Meredith McIver. That is a mistake,” Trump said explaining one of those errors. The deposition was first reported by the Washington Post.
She is a former ballerina and studied English
McIver trained at George Balachine’s School of American Ballet from the age of 14, according to her speakers bureau biography. The writer and editor majored in English and graduated with honors from the University of Utah.