Fact Check

Did Trump Plagiarize His Inaugural Address from 'Bee Movie' and 'Avatar?'

Claims about President Trump's lifting lines from various films for his inaugural address were unfounded.

Published Jan. 21, 2017

 (Shutterstock)
Image Via Shutterstock
Claim:
Donald Trump plagiarized portions of 'Bee Movie' and 'Avatar' for his inaugural address.

On 20 January 2017, a rumor started circulating on social media that President Donald Trump had plagiarized portions of the 2007 adventure/comedy film Bee Movie in his Inaugural Address:

trump bee movie

The quote on the left-hand side of the above-displayed graphic does appear in President Trump's inaugural address, and can be seen in a transcript of the speech provided by WhiteHouse.gov. The quote on the right-hand side of this image, however, does not appear in Bee Movie. We were unable to locate this quote (or a similar one) in online scripts of the movie provided by Script-o-Rama or SpringfieldSpringfield.co.uk.

A similar claim was made about the movie Avatar:

trump avatar

Again, the quote on the left can be found in President Trump's inaugural address, but the quote on the right can't be found in the Avatar script.;

Social media users also accused Trump of plagiarizing the words of another movie character, Bane, from the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises. While Trump and Bane used similar lines (Trump said "we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the people" and Bane said "The oppressors of generations ... who have kept you down with myths of opportunity. And we give it back to you ...the people"), this was more a case of vague coincidence than actual plagiarism:

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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