The Trump White House is demanding an investigation into why the escalator at the United Nations abruptly stopped shortly after Donald Trump stepped onto it on Tuesday, but it turns out the malfunction was caused by a member of the president’s team.
During his speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Trump whined about the escalator and the teleprompter malfunctioning, telling world leaders, “These are the two things I got from the United Nations – a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt then went on X to demand an investigation and called for the person responsible for stopping the escalator to be fired.
“If someone at the U.N. intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately,” she posted.
But U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said a readout of the escalator’s central processing unit showed it “had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator,” Reuters reports. The safety mechanism was triggered by Trump’s videographer who was traveling up the escalator backwards to capture the first couple’s arrival.
“The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function,” Dujarric added. “The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing.”
Regarding the teleprompter Trump said, “I can only say that whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.”
However, a U.N. official told the Associated Press that White House officials were operating the teleprompter.
