The White House has called for an investigation after an escalator stopped functioning as President Donald Trump and the First Lady entered the United Nations, following teleprompter issues during his speech at the General Assembly.
On Tuesday, the White House demanded an inquiry to determine whether the escalator was intentionally stopped to embarrass the US President. “If someone at the UN intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X.
AFP quoted Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, explaining that the escalator mishap occurred because someone in front of President Trump accidentally triggered a safety mechanism, causing it to shut down.
Leavitt also referenced a report from the Times of London published on Sunday, which claimed that some UN staff members had joked about turning off the escalators and telling Trump they had run out of money, amid sweeping cuts to US funding.
During his address at the UN General Assembly in New York, President Trump also faced a technical glitch with his teleprompter. Opening his speech, he remarked, “I don’t mind making this speech without a teleprompter, because the teleprompter is not working.” Later, with a grin, he added, “I can only say that whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.”
Pointing out the escalator incident, Trump said, “I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never even received a phone call from the United Nations. 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 have fallen, but she’s in great shape. We’re both in good shape.”
He continued, “These are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter. Thank you very much.”
After delivering his speech, Trump took to Truth Social to reflect on his UN address, mentioning both the teleprompter and escalator issues. “It was a great honor to speak before the United Nations. I believe the speech was very well received. It focused very much on energy and migration/immigration. I have been talking about this for a long period of time and this Forum was the absolute best from the standpoint of making these two important statements. I hope everybody gets to watch it!” he wrote.
Highlighting that the teleprompter and escalator mishaps made the speech “more interesting,” Trump also took a subtle jab at the UN.
Regarding the teleprompter glitch, Stephane Dujarric stated, “We have no comment since the teleprompter for the US president is operated by the White House.”
https://www.news18.com/world/white-house-calls-for-probe-into-malfunctions-faced-by-trump-at-un-ws-l-9592576.html