Donald Trump’s first address to the United Nations General Assembly of his new term began in typical fashion with a grievance. But the president’s ire was aimed not at a particular world leader or conflict, but rather the hall’s teleprompter, which he declared was non-functional.
“I can only say that whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,” Trump said at the time to laughs from the assembled leaders.
Though the teleprompter eventually came back online, Trump’s anger about the device continued well into the next day. But that wasn’t his only problem. He has demanded an investigation into a series of U.N.-related incidents that he deemed “A REAL DISGRACE” on social media.
On TruthSocial, Trump complained about the broken teleprompter as well as sound issues in the auditorium, and escalator he alleges came to a “screeching halt” as he and First Lady Melania Trump were headed upstairs.
“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,” he wrote.
The president alluded to an article in The Sunday Times that reported that U.N. workers had joked about turning off the escalators and elevators so Trump would be forced to walk instead. “The people that did it should be arrested!,” he wrote.
Trump is showing no signs of dropping the issue, vowing to contact António Guterres, the U.N.’s secretary general, and claiming the Secret Service is now looking into the matter. “I’m sending a copy of this letter to the Secretary General, and I demand an immediate investigation. No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do,” he wrote.
Members of Trump’s administration echoed the president’s calls for an inquiry. Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, denounced the “series of outrageous failures” and demanded the U.N. provide explanations for the incidents. “These lapses are unacceptable and symptomatic of a broken institution that pose serious safety and security risks,” he wrote on X.
Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo echoed Trump’s concerns Thursday, saying that the escalator incident could’ve been a “massive, massive issue” that put Trump at risk: