‘Fired and investigated’: White House fury over Trump UN escalator fail

New York: US President Donald Trump suffered a number of awkward tech difficulties during his visit to the United Nations headquarters, including a broken escalator and a faulty teleprompter.

The day was beset with technical problems for him after it was reported that UN workers had been overheard joking about switching off the power to an escalator.

According to The Times, “figures inside the UN” were swapping ideas of pranks they could pull to highlight budget holes in the organisation after the Trump administration withheld funding. Among them was stopping the power to the escalators and lifts.

On Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), the US president and first lady Melania Trump were left standing confused on an escalator after it stopped as they stood on it at the entrance of the UN New York headquarters.

The couple were then forced to trudge up the static steps towards the assembly hall.

Things only got worse when the president arrived at the podium and his teleprompter appeared to have failed, forcing him to revert to a hard copy of his speech.

US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump hit an escalator failure at the UN .Credit: AP

The Trumps were forced to trudge up the broken escalator.Credit: AP

“I can only say whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,” he joked, drawing laughter from the diplomats in attendance.

Trump berated the UN for the state of the organisation’s headquarters during his speech, pointing out his 2000s bid to renovate the building had been rebuffed.

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“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator on the way up that stopped in the middle,” Trump said. “If the first lady wasn’t in great shape, she would’ve fallen.”

Following his speech, the president joked about the incidents on Truth Social.

He posted: “The teleprompter was broken and the escalator came to a sudden hault [sic] as we were ridding [sic] up to the podium, but both of those events probably made the speech more interesting than it would have been otherwise.”

Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, shared The Times story on X, writing: “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.”

A UN official, quoted by The Associated Press, said the United Nations understood that someone from the president’s party who ran ahead of him inadvertently triggered the stop mechanism on the escalator. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the White House was operating the teleprompter for the president.

In his nearly hour-long speech, Trump launched fresh attacks against his Democrat opponents and talked up the US economy. He also focused heavily on what he perceived as failures in Western Europe.

Trump addresses the United Nations General Assembly after his teleprompter failed.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

In one of his strongest criticisms, he warned European leaders in the audience that their countries were “going to hell” because of uncontrolled mass migration.

“You’re destroying your countries. They’re being destroyed. Europe is in serious trouble,” he said.

“They’ve been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody’s ever seen before. Illegal aliens are pouring into Europe,” he said.

The Telegraph, London

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