A malfunctioning escalator and teleprompter failure at the United Nations General Assembly in New York sparked fresh tension on Tuesday between the White House and U.N. officials. President Donald Trump complained mid-speech about the glitches, while the White House later suggested that U.N. staffers may have deliberately caused the escalator mishap.
The U.N. said the explanation is much simpler, theorizing that a videographer from Trump’s delegation may have triggered the escalator emergency shut-off. An agency official told CBS News that the White House had been operating the teleprompter when it malfunctioned.
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What happened?
Video shared of the incident shows Trump and First Lady Melania Trump stepping onto an escalator at U.N. headquarters when the moving stairs jolted to a halt, forcing them to climb the rest of the way on foot. Hours later, during Trump’s General Assembly address, his teleprompter also cut out.
“I can only say that whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,” the president joked, drawing a laugh from the crowd. He later tied both glitches to broader criticisms of the U.N.
“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’ve fallen,” Trump said. “These are two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”
White House calls for accountability
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that the incidents may not have been accidents.
“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,” Leavitt wrote on X.
Leavitt cited a Times of London report claiming that some U.N. employees had joked about shutting down escalators during Trump’s arrival. She later told Fox News that the Secret Service is investigating the incident.
“When you put all this together, it doesn’t look like a coincidence to me,” the press secretary remarked on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime.” And if we find that these were U.N. staffers who were purposefully trying to trip up, literally trip up, the president and the first lady of the United States, well, there better be accountability for those people.”
Watters also stated that the escalator shutting down was “sabotage,” and, coupled with the malfunctioning teleprompter, was an “insurrection.” He then stated that the United States either needed to “leave the U.N or bomb it,” joking about U.N. headquarters being in New York.
Fox News host Jesse Watters suggested bombing and gassing the United Nations over escalator and teleprompter issues pic.twitter.com/uvJImMG17w
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) September 23, 2025
UN pushes back
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the escalator stoppage was traced to a safety mechanism triggered at the top of the stairs – likely when a Trump videographer stepped into the comb plate to film the president’s arrival.
“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,” Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement. “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…”
Funding backdrop
The spat comes as the U.N. faces a budget crunch, partly due to unpaid U.S. dues. According to ABC News, U.N. offices in New York and Geneva have occasionally turned off escalators and elevators as cost-saving measures. However, there’s no indication this was the case on Tuesday.
