"She came to see me because she hated to see the conflict. And she made a mistake," Trump said of the speechwriter. | Getty Trump on Melania speechwriter: 'We all make mistakes'

Donald Trump on Wednesday said he decided not to fire the speechwriter behind his wife's plagiarized prime-time convention speech because she had proved her worth to the Trump Organization over the years.

"She’s been with me a long time. She’s a very good person. She came to see me because she hated to see the conflict. And she made a mistake. And, you know, people make mistakes. You’ve made mistakes. We all make mistakes," Trump told ABC News about Meredith McIver, the Trump Organization staff writer who on Wednesday took the blame for the passages in Melania Trump's speech that were lifted from Michelle Obama's 2008 convention address.


"And I guess maybe if she weren’t with me for a long time and if I didn’t know how good she was—I’ve done books with her that have been bestsellers," he said.

McIver, a former ballet dancer who is listed as the co-author of many of Trump's books, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that she had offered her resignation but that Trump refused to accept it. “I did not like seeing the way this was distracting from Mr. Trump’s historic campaign for president and Melania’s beautiful message and presentation," McIver wrote in her statement, which was released by the Trump campaign.

McIver, Trump continued in the ABC News interview, is "a terrific person" who "just made a mistake."

"And I thought it was terrific the way she came forward and just said, 'Look, it was a mistake that I made.' And she thought it was very unfair to Melania," Trump said. "Although, interestingly, the press treated Melania very well because they didn’t think it was her."

Asked how his wife is handling being the wife of a presidential nominee, Trump called it "a different world."

"I mean, no matter where you move, no matter where you breathe, it's like a big deal. But she handles it well. She's very — she's a strong woman. She's a good woman. I thought she made an incredible speech. I thought she made a beautiful," Trump said, as George Stephanopoulos remarked, "She had the hall."

Trump agreed, "She had the hall. Totally had the hall. And now that cloud is lifted off her, which is terrific, because it was very unfair."

"I think it was very unfair, although," Trump reiterated, "I will say, the media, they did not think she had actually anything to do with it, which is nice."