Donald Trump UN Escalator Malfunction: US President Donald Trump strayed from his prepared speech at the United Nations on Tuesday to complain about a broken escalator and a malfunctioning teleprompter, using the incidents to say that the UN is not functioning properly.
“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up stopped right in the middle,” Trump said in his UNGA speech, waving his hand as he spoke.
However, as per the UN, the problem wasn’t on their side.
UN blames Trump’s videographer
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, said a videographer from the US delegation ran ahead of Trump towards the escalator, which triggered the escalator’s safety mechanism.
“The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing,” Dujarric explained. “The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function.”
Teleprompter was controlled by US team, says official
Trump also mentioned that his teleprompter wasn’t working and joked that whoever was running it “is in big trouble.” A UN official, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the White House was controlling the teleprompter at the time, reported Associated Press.
Even so, it’s not unusual for UN escalators to stop unexpectedly. Staff and visitors are aware that elevators and escalators at UN offices in New York and Geneva have sometimes been turned off to save money, due to a “liquidity crisis” at the organization. This is partly caused by delays in funding from the United States, the UN’s largest donor.