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Watch Donald Trump Veterans Reform Speech Stream Live — But Did Trump Plagiarize VA Reform Plan From Nevada Businessman?

By Jonathan Vankin
Published on: 06:57 PST, Jul 10, 2016

Donald Trump will deliver what his campaign is billing as a major address on “veterans reform” on Monday. The speech that will stream live from Virginia Beach, Florida, amid allegations that Trump has again failed to deliver on a promise to donate money to veterans charities — and that his veterans reform plan is itself plagiarized from a plan circulated by a Nevada businessman.

Scroll down this page to watch a live stream of the Donald Trump veterans reform speech on Monday.

In January of this year, Trump held an event in Iowa, promising to donate all of the proceeds raised from the event to veterans charities. Trump announced at the event that he had raised $6 million for veterans groups.

But by late May, an investigation by the Washington Post found that less than $2 million of that money had been distributed to veterans charities. Trump also pledged $1 million out of his own pocket to veterans charities. Trump claims a personal fortune of $10 billion.

The Post discovered that by late May, Trump had not made that personal donation, but he finally did part with the $1 million after the Post ran an exposé on Trump’s giving.

Last month, a report by the Huffington Post revealed that Trump may have pulled a similar bait-and-switch with veterans donations in regard to his latest book, Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, which was published in November of 2015.

Trump promised that all proceeds he received from the book would be donated to veterans groups. But even though, according to his own campaign financial disclosure forms, Trump earned as much as $5 million in royalties from sales of his Crippled America book, which carries a cover price of $25, the Huffington Post investigation could find no indication that Trump had donated any of it to veterans’ charity groups.

Watch an Associated Press video report on Trump and the controversy over donations to veterans charities below.

To watch a live stream of the Donald Trump speech of veterans reform from the Westin Virginia Beach Town Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia, click on the below video. The speech is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 10 a.m. Pacific, on Monday, July 11.

Yet another controversy regarding his veterans policy hit Donald Trump this week. The conservative Weekly Standard magazine reported that the policy, as it appears in Trump campaign materials, appeared to have been lifted almost word-for-word from a plan by Nevada-based veterans reform activist Michael Crosby, the president of Green Life Can LLC.

Crosby himself said that he has no issue with Trump lifting his ideas and describes himself as an enthusiastic Trump supporter.

“I’m honored that someone stole my ideas and is using them even without my name attached,” Crosby told The Weekly Standard.

Trump’s plan begins as follows.

“The current state of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is absolutely unacceptable. Over 300,000 veterans died waiting for care. Corruption and incompetence were excused. Politicians in Washington have done too little too slowly to fix it.”

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Crosby’s document begins with the following wording.

“The current state of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is absolutely unacceptable. Over 300,000 veterans have died waiting for care. Corruption and incompetence have been accepted, and excused when confronted. Politicians in Washington have done little too address any significant resolution to this growing problem.”

Further passages in both documents reveal more close similarities.

The Donald Trump event in Virginia is not open to the public, and presumably, Trump will read from a prepared text. But according to his campaign website, Trump will hold a public rally the following day in Westfield, Indiana, an event that will also stream live.

[Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images]

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