President Donald Trump made a dramatic claim Wednesday night that he and First Lady Melania Trump could have been seriously injured by an escalator at the United Nations.
He alleged sabotage during his Tuesday visit to the United Nations General Assembly, referencing the escalator incident, a malfunctioning teleprompter, and poor audio in the assembly hall.
‘A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday – Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!’ Trump began.
He noted how the escalator, which he boarded directly after entering the UN building in New York City, ‘came to a screeching halt.’
‘It stopped on a dime,’ the president remarked. ‘It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first.’
‘It was only that we were each holding the handrail tightly or, it would have been a disaster,’ he added.
Echoing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comments about a Sunday Times report that mentioned UN staff joking about turning off escalators and elevators as a prank, Trump called the escalator incident ‘absolutely sabotage.’
‘The people that did it should be arrested!’ Trump said.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump got stuck on a broken escalator and had to walk up the metal stairs upon arriving at the UN General Assembly before his address on Tuesday morning.
President Donald Trump mentioned Wednesday evening that he and First Lady Melania Trump could have been injured on the ‘sharp edges of these steel steps’ when the UN escalator stopped abruptly and claimed his teleprompter and the sound during his speech were tampered with.
He then turned to the teleprompter.
‘It was stone cold dark. I immediately thought to myself, “Wow, first the escalator event, and now a bad teleprompter. What kind of a place is this?”‘ he wrote.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told the Daily Mail Wednesday morning that the White House was operating Trump’s teleprompter at the time.
The president also charged that the audio wasn’t piping out to the audience when he was delivering his speech to the body.
‘And third, after making the Speech, I was told that the sound was completely off in the Auditorium where the Speech was made, that World Leaders, unless they used the interpreters’ earpieces, couldn’t hear a thing,’ he said.
A UN official told the Daily Mail that the audio was set up that way by design.
‘The sound system was designed to allow people at their seats to hear speeches being translated into six different languages through earpieces. It has been like this for decades,’ the official said.
It appears nobody told the president or first lady about this ahead of time.
President Donald Trump’s teleprompter wasn’t working at the beginning of his speech to the UN General Assembly – which the UN says the White House was operating – and he says the volume of his speech was deliberately kept low
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (left) can be seen wearing an earpiece as he listened to President Donald Trump’s speech Tuesday morning at the UN General Assembly. A UN official told the Daily Mail that the volume is kept low so speeches can be simultaneously translated
‘The first person I saw at the conclusion of the Speech was Melania, who was sitting right up front. I said, “How did I do?” And she said, “I couldn’t hear a word you said,”‘ Trump continued.
‘This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN,’ Trump said. ‘They ought to be ashamed of themselves.’
The president said he was writing a letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres, asking him to investigate the matter.
He asked that all security tapes be saved.
The White House previously confirmed that the Secret Service was looking into the escalator incident – however the Secret Service has not responded to the Daily Mail’s additional request for comment.
In a statement Tuesday, Dujarric said that Trump’s videographer, who can be seen boarding the escalator several seconds before the first couple, likely triggered an emergency stop.
The videographer was seen walking backward up the steps.
First Lady Melania Trump watched President Donald Trump speak Tuesday at the UN General Assembly. The president said Wednesday night that she told him she could barely hear his remarks, which he said counted as ‘sabotage’
The White House’s videographer can be seen riding the escalator backward as he films President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arriving at the UN. A UN spokesperson said that he may have ‘inadvertently triggered the safety function’
‘A subsequent investigation, including a readout of the machine’s central processing unit, indicated that the escalator had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator,’ Dujarric said.
‘The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing,’ he said. ‘The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above.’
The UN’s technician reset the escalator ‘as soon as the delegation had climbed up to the second floor,’ Dujarric also said.
The escalator was observed by the Daily Mail working properly the rest of the morning.
A White House spokesperson wouldn’t say Wednesday morning if Trump administration officials believed the UN’s explanation.
During his speech, Trump used the broken escalator and teleprompter to make a broader point that the UN was broken.
‘I ended seven wars, dealt with leaders of each country, and never even received a call from the UN offering to help in finalizing the deal,’ Trump complained.
‘The United Nations wasn’t there for us. They weren’t there. I thought of it after the fact, not during these negotiations…what is the purpose of the UN? It’s not even coming close to living up to that potential,’ he said.
President Donald Trump (left) can be seen walking up the steps behind First Lady Melania Trump (right) after the escalator stopped working nearly as soon as they got on. The UN provided a statement to the press about what happened
‘These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,’ the president then said.
He reiterated those comments Wednesday night.
‘No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
And despite any audio issues, Trump boasted that the fiery speech was a success.
‘The good news is the Speech has gotten fantastic reviews,’ he said. ‘Maybe they appreciated the fact that very few people could have done what I did.’
