A U.N. spokesperson has offered an explanation for yesterday’s awkward escalator incident at the United Nations involving President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, placing the blame for an apparent technical malfunction on a member of Trump’s team who may have triggered a “safety mechanism.”
On Tuesday, Trump was present at the U.N. General Assembly to deliver a belligerent and lengthy speech when the escalator he and the first lady were riding stopped abruptly, forcing them to walk the rest of the way up.
“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up stopped right in the middle,” Trump said during his speech.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt even alleged that some U.N. staffers may have been “plotting” to make Trump look bad.
“There was some concerning reporting over the weekend that U.N. globalist staffers were basically plotting to set up the president of the United States,” Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters.
Watters asked Leavitt if the incident was actually an act of “sabotage.”
“That’s definitely what it appears to be to me,” Leavitt replied.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, offered a more grounded explanation. According to Dujarric, one of Trump’s own videographers may have been responsible. Running up the escalator ahead of the Trumps, she said, could have triggered a safety feature 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,” Dujarric said in a statement on Tuesday. “The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function.”
As Trump was beginning his speech before the General Assembly, he suffered another technical difficulty: The teleprompter did not work properly, leading Trump to say that whoever was running it “is in big trouble.” Again, Leavitt blamed the U.N. staff.
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“First it was the escalator, then it was the teleprompter,” Leavitt said, calling for “accountability” for those “purposely” trying to derail Trump.
“When you put all of this together, it doesn’t look like a coincidence to me,” Leavitt said. “We have people, including the United States Secret Service, looking into this to get to the bottom of it.”
But an official from the U.N., speaking on condition of anonymity, told ABC News that White House staff were again the ones likely responsible, as they were operating the teleprompter for Trump.
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