This is not a surprise to anyone with a brain. The standard response of the Trump campaign when confronted with information it does not like is to lie and attack. Inevitably, the people most damaged are those who have willingly signed on to do Trump’s bidding. Yesterday, alleged Russian mob fixer Paul Manafort went out and lied and attacked. The hapless Sean Spicer was later sent out to beclown himself with his My Little Pony defense. Now, barely 24 hours later, the campaign has admitted what was known yesterday morning: passages of Melania Trump’s speech were lifted from a 2008 speech by Michelle Obama.

Remember: The campaign's initial response to this was that Melania's speeches wasn't "cribbing" at all. pic.twitter.com/SyjXPskIMo

— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) July 20, 2016

The story is also a metaphor for everything that is wrong with the Donald Trump campaign. Maggie Haberman, writing in the New York Times, details how a speech drafted by two professional GOP speechwriters was taken apart by Melania Trump and reassembled by a personal speechwriter. This lack of discipline, insularity, and sense of entitlement is exactly what has caused every single one of the near hourly fiascos that have become the hallmark of the Trump campaign.