President Trump's arrival at the United Nations General Assembly in New York took an awkward turn on Tuesday after back-to-back technical hiccups left him visibly annoyed. As Trump and first lady Melania Trump stepped onto an escalator at UN headquarters, the machine abruptly stopped, forcing the pair to trek up the steps on foot, a moment captured in several videos, per CBS News. Minutes later, Trump began his speech, only to discover his teleprompter wasn't working, prompting a quip to the audience and a jab at UN competence.
Trump later referenced both episodes as symbolic of what he sees as the UN's shortcomings, saying in his remarks, per the AP: "All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that, on the way up, stopped right in the middle. If the first lady wasn't in great shape, she would've fallen." He added, "But she's in great shape. We're both in good shape. ... These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter."
The White House, meanwhile, suggested that sabotage might have been involved, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt posting on X that if anyone at the UN purposely halted the escalator, they should be fired and investigated. Leavitt cited a Times of London report in which UN staffers joked about turning off escalators and elevators during Trump's visit, though there's no evidence such plans were carried out.
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UN officials offered a more mundane explanation: A member of Trump's own video team may have accidentally set off the escalator's safety mechanism, according to a spokesman, triggering an automatic stop. As for the teleprompter issue, a UN official noted that the White House operated the device during the speech.
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