The United Nations responded to criticisms President Donald Trump made regarding an escalator and a teleprompter at the U.N. General Assembly. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
The United Nations said that it was President Donald Trump’s own team that caused escalator issues that the president has complained about.
“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that, on the way up, stopped right in the middle. If the first lady wasn’t in great shape, she would have fallen. But she’s in great shape. We’re both in good shape. We both stood. And then a teleprompter. That didn’t work,” Trump said. “These are the two things I got from the United Nations. A bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X that an article in The Times of London stated that U.N. staffers joked about shutting down the escalator and telling Trump that they ran out of money, in reference to Trump’s funding cuts.
“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,” Leavitt said in her post.
The United Nations’ Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the secretary-general, responded in a statement to the escalator complaint.
“Our technician, who was at the location, reset the escalator as soon as the delegation had climbed up to the second floor. 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. The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing. The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above,” the U.N. statement said.
Dujarric also said the White House was responsible for Trump’s teleprompter.
“We have no comment since the teleprompter for the U.S. president is operated by the White House,” he said.
