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Donald Trump Shamelessly Plagiarizes Ben Carson In Op-Ed Piece

By Val Powell
Published on: 03:07 PST, Mar 18, 2016

After Dr. Ben Carson dropped out of the 2016 Presidential race weeks ago when the first super Tuesday took place, he endorsed GOP front-runner Donald Trump and said in a statement that he is not bothered by the reports that the business mogul plagiarized his recently published op-ed.

It has been reported that an op-ed, which was published by Guam’s Pacific Daily News, is quite similar to that of Ben Carson’s piece published in another publication called Marianas Variety.

In an excerpt from the February 26 column of the former neurosurgeon’s piece, entitled “Restoring Equality and Fairness to Our fellow Americans in the Territories and Commonwealths,” he said that many Americans do not appreciate the patriotism exhibited by their brothers in the “territories of American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.”

When compared side by side with Donald Trump’s March 9 op-ed entitled “I Won’t Ignore Territories,” the New York businessman seemed to have re-worded the above-mentioned statement, echoing the same basic thought. There were also other parts in the Ben Carson piece that were oddly similar to Trump’s piece; the only difference was the way it was delivered.

Neither Donald Trump nor his campaign has yet to comment on the issue, but Ben Carson spoke with CNN’s Erin Burnett earlier this week, and the subject of plagiarism was brought up. The retired neurosurgeon pointed out that a lot of the people who worked with him previously during his short-lived campaign stint are now working for Donald Trump.

Ben Carson added that the supposed plagiarized article does not surprise him at all.

However, Burnett continued to probe and get more details from him by asking, “So, in other words, it could be a direct copy, but it wouldn’t be plagiarism because it could be somebody who actually wrote the first one writing the second one?”

The former presidential hopeful then replied by saying that it does not bother him at all. The host stopped pursuing the subject and the conversation ended there.

In another interview with Yahoo News, it was revealed that Ben Carson was offered a position in Donald Trump’s administration in the event that he wins the presidency. He did, however, say that he is not the biggest fan of the business mogul, but if his former rival indeed makes a terrible president, he would only run the United States for four years.

He also shared on CNN that if Donald Trump is denied the nomination, a lot of “turmoil” could result in it, since talks of a brokered convention could take place this July. His comments come after the GOP front-runner said that there will be riots if the Republican Party insists on blocking his nomination.

The endorsement of Ben Carson comes as a surprise as Donald Trump criticized him multiple times and even once called him a child molester during one of his campaigns. However, it seems like the retired neurosurgeon no longer has qualms against the business giant, as he said that he understands Donald Trump and his politics.

Ben Carson continued to say that a lot of people actually believe what Trump has to say in all of his speeches, despite the controversial comments that he often makes. He added that Trump’s campaign strategy has been very effective at increasing the number of his supporters continuously and exponentially.

[Photos by Chip Somodevilla and Sean Rayford/Getty Images]

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