Press secretary speculates the escalator stopped on purpose to humiliate president, but UN says safety function may have been ‘inadvertently triggered’
Donald Trump appeared to laugh it off Tuesday when an escalator and a teleprompter both malfunctioned during his United Nations visit – but for US officials it was no laughing matter.
The White House said an investigation had been launched into whether the moving stairway was stopped on purpose to humiliate the US president, who later bashed the global body in his speech to the UN general assembly in New York.
“If we find that these were UN and 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. And I will personally see to it,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News on Tuesday evening.
Leavitt also posted to X after the incident: “If someone at the U.N. intentionally stopped the escalator … they need to be fired and investigated immediately.”
