Meredith McIver

Meredith McIver, born in 1950 or 1951, is a former professional ballerina, author, and staff writer for the Trump Organization. A native of San Jose, California, she relocated to New York City at the age of 14 after receiving a Ford Foundation Scholarship for dance. In New York, she trained at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet during the summers of 1965 and 1966, then enrolled full-time in the institution's advanced division from 1967 to 1970. She subsequently pursued academic study, earning an English degree with honors from the University of Utah in 1976.

McIver's Broadway career culminated in a 1981 appearance in the revival of Can-Can, a production that closed after only five performances. Her stage work drew on the extensive dance training she had undertaken in New York during the preceding decade and a half.

Following her performing career, McIver transitioned into writing and became affiliated with Donald Trump and the Trump Organization. By 2007 she was described publicly as Trump's assistant, and she served as a ghostwriter on several books published under his name. Her co-authored titles include Trump: How to Get Rich (2004), Trump: Think Like a Billionaire (2004), Trump 101: The Way to Success (2006), Why We Want You to Be Rich (2006), co-written with Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter, and Trump: Never Give Up (2008).

In a 2007 deposition arising from a defamation lawsuit Trump brought against author Timothy L. O'Brien, Trump identified McIver as the likely author of passages in two of their co-written books that overstated his level of indebtedness during the 1990s real estate market downturn, framing his subsequent financial recovery as more dramatic than the underlying facts supported.

McIver became the subject of wider public attention in July 2016, when she contributed to a speech delivered by Melania Trump at the Republican National Convention on July 19 of that year. The speech was found to contain passages drawn from a speech Michelle Obama had delivered at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. McIver subsequently issued a statement, reported by the Associated Press, explaining that during a phone call Melania Trump had read her passages from Obama's speech as illustrations of her own sentiments, and that McIver had written them down and later incorporated the phrasing into the draft without recognizing their origin. The Trump family chose not to accept McIver's offer to resign following the incident.