President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that he was the victim of “three very sinister events” during his visit to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, insisting the incidents were no accident and calling for a Secret Service investigation.
Trump, who delivered a sharp critique of the UN in his address, accused the organization of wasting its potential and chastised European allies over their handling of the war in Ukraine and their approach to immigration, warning that some nations were “going to hell.”
Escalator Halt, Teleprompter Failure, and Sound Issues
“A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday — Not one, not two, but three very sinister events! First, the escalator going up to the Main Speaking Floor came to a screeching halt. It stopped on a dime. 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. This was absolutely sabotage… The people that did it should be arrested!”
The second problem, Trump said, occurred during his speech when the teleprompter “didn’t work. It was stone cold dark.” He added:
“I immediately thought to myself, ‘Wow, first the escalator event, and now a bad teleprompter. What kind of a place is this?’ I then proceeded to make a Speech without a teleprompter, which kicked in about 15 minutes later. The good news is the Speech has gotten fantastic reviews. Maybe they appreciated the fact that very few people could have done what I did.”
Finally, Trump said the sound in the UN auditorium failed during his address:
“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. 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.’ This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. I’m sending a copy of this letter to the Secretary General, and I demand an immediate investigation. All security tapes at the escalator should be saved, especially the emergency stop button. The Secret Service is involved.”
UN Officials Cite Accidents, Technical Glitches
UN officials, however, said the escalator may have stopped because a US delegation videographer inadvertently triggered the emergency mechanism. The teleprompter, they noted, is operated by the White House, not the UN, and audio issues are not uncommon in the assembly hall.
Technical malfunctions are not unusual at UN headquarters, where escalators and elevators have occasionally been turned off as part of cost-saving measures during a liquidity crunch tied to delayed payments from member states, including the United States, the world body’s largest donor.
