President Donald Trump was met with some malfunctioning equipment at the U.N. General Assembly, leading him to criticize the organization. Both a broken escalator and teleprompter greeted Trump at the event.
On Tuesday morning, Trump arrived at the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan alongside First Lady Melania Trump, who wore a cream suit with a caramel top.
He said ‘thank you’ to reporters and headed toward an escalator with his entourage ahead of his big speech.
A moment later, he was following the first lady – in her tall heels – up the steps as the escalator had stopped.
Once the president got to the podium in the assembly hall, he realized the teleprompter was broken.
He had already planned to criticize the international body, but the back-to-back screw-ups provided him fresh fodder.
Trump remarked, ‘The escalator stopped midway up. If the First Lady wasn’t in great shape, she could have fallen.’ He used the incident to express his displeasure with the U.N.
Trump, again, boasted about the many conflicts he claims he’s put an end to.
On Tuesday, he blasted the U.N. for not trying to help with any of them.
He stated, ‘I managed to end seven wars and engaged with leaders of each country without any assistance from the UN.’
Trump questioned the U.N.’s effectiveness, saying, ‘The UN wasn’t there for us. It’s falling short of its intended purpose.’
President Donald Trump used a broken teleprompter and a broken escalator to say how useless the United Nations is
President Donald Trump (left) and First Lady Melania Trump (right) boarded an escalator at the U.N. that promptly broke
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Trump would take the ‘globalists’ to task in his remarks before the U.N.
She said he would deliver a ‘major speech touting the renewal of American strength around the world.’
According to Leavitt, the President will also address the negative impacts globalist institutions have had on international order and present his forward-thinking vision for global stability.
Trump’s MAGA movement has been anti-globalist in nature, with Trump and his ‘America First’ allies arguing that the global ‘elites’ have benefited from trade agreements, which have wiped out American manufacturing jobs.
The more conspiracy-minded members of the MAGA movement, such as adherents to QAnon, believe a global cabal created a sex trafficking ring of minors and that prominent Democratic politicians are involved.
The president and his MAGA allies have also condemned the U.N. for being too anti-Israel.
Ahead of the General Assembly, the State Department yanked a visa for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, and his delegation, on the grounds of national security.
Abbas will appear at the General Assembly in a pre-recorded message virtually.
On Monday, a top ally of the United States, France, was the latest Western nation to back Palestinian statehood, with French President Emmanuel Macron pushing that the two-state solution would pave the way to end the current conflict in Gaza.
Filling the U.S. ambassador’s job at the U.N. also hasn’t been a top priority for the administration.
Trump had originally appointed GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik to serve as his ambassador to the U.N. after the post was previously occupied by former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former U.S. ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft during his first term.
Stefanik criticized ‘antisemitic rot’ growing in the U.N. during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing.
In late March, with a slim majority in the House, Trump pulled Stefanik’s nomination, replacing her in May with his former national security adviser, Michael Waltz, who was ousted from the top National Security Council post after his role in Signalgate.
Waltz took the fall for adding the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a Signal group of top advisers discussing attacks on Houthi rebels.
The Senate finally confirmed Waltz for the U.N. ambassadorship last week – just in time for this week’s General Assembly.
Trump hasn’t had the easiest time in front of the United Nations in past years.
In 2018, he was laughed at when his General Assembly address was braggadocios in nature.
The president proclaimed that ‘in less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.’
He then ad-libbed, ‘So true.’
That got the audience going.
‘Didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s OK,’ Trump answered the laughter.
At a press conference later in the day, the president insisted that the world leaders weren’t laughing with him.
‘They weren’t laughing at me, they were laughing with me. We had fun,’ he told reporters. ‘That was not laughing at me.’
