The incident was not taken lightly by Trump, who termed it sabotage, and some of the senior officials in his administration, including
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, called for the dismissal of anyone found
culpable of deliberately stopping the escalator.
She added an excerpt from a report by The Times, which she
alleged to have been published on Sunday, that described a discussion purportedly by
UN staffers talking of shutting down the escalators so the US president and his
delegation take the stairs upon arrival.
"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 after the
incident.
The Star has established that the US Secret Service is also
looking into the abrupt escalator stop.
Trump had gone to make remarks at the United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA).
During the speech, he also encountered issues with the
teleprompter, but went on to joke that during his visit, he had encountered two things at
the UN, and one was a bad escalator, while the other was a bad teleprompter.
“All I got at the United Nations is an escalator that on the
way up stopped right in the middle and then a teleprompter that did not work.”
In another post on Truth Social, Trump termed the occurrences
at the UN a ‘real disgrace,’ further saying that the sound during his address
was too low.
He called for speedy investigations into the incidents.
“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.
“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. And
third, after making the Speech, I was told that the sound was completely off in
the Auditorium where the Speech was made, that World Leaders, unless they used
the interpreter’s earpieces, couldn’t hear a thing,” Trump said.
In a statement after the incident, the United Nations said
the abrupt stop was part of an automatic emergency protocol of the escalator.
Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said their probe disclosed that the stop was a result of the manner in which
a White House videographer got on the escalator before the US President and
First Lady.
Dujarric said the videographer stepped on and was moving
backward to capture the US president's arrival, and this could have triggered
the safety measure.
The measure is put to stop objects from being accidentally
caught or trapped by the escalator.
“In an effort to document their arrival, a videographer from
the US delegation stepped onto the escalator ahead of the President and First
Lady. As the videographer, who was traveling backward up the escalator, reached
the top, the First Lady, followed by President Trump, each mounted the steps at
the bottom. At that moment (9:50am), the escalator came to a stop. 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 from accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing. The
videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described
above,” the UN said.
Further reports say that at the time of Trump’s address, the
teleprompter was being operated by a White House official.
Various authorities are looking into the incident to ascertain
the actual cause of the abrupt stop, including the Secret Service.
