White House accuses UN of ‘sabotage’ after escalator malfunction

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it 'definitely appears' to be sabotage against the president.

On Tuesday, Trump delivered a nonsensical speech to the General Assembly in New York, which was full of falsehoods and divisive rhetoric.

But he started off his speech by attacking the UN for a "bad escalator" which malfunctioned as he and his wife Melania stepped onto it.

Now, the White House has said it is launching an investigation into whether this was a deliberate act by UN staff to embarrass Trump.

Speaking to Fox News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the escalator, combined with Trump's teleprompter breaking at the start of his speech, looked like sabotage to her.

"That's definitely what it appears to be to me," she told presenter Jesse Watters. She mentioned a report from the Times over the weekend which said UN staff had "joked that they may turn off the escalators and elevators" on Trump's arrival so that he has to "walk up the stairs."

Leavitt also claimed the audio in the room had been "much lower" for Trump's speech than previous speakers.

She continued: "So when you put all of this together, it doesn't look like a coincidence to me. I know that we have people, incuding the United States Secret Service, who are looking into this to try to get to the bottom of it.

She added: "If we find these were UN staffers who were purposely trying to literally trip up the president and the first lady, there better be accountability for those people and I will personally see to it."

Sharing the excerpt from the Times' report on X, Leavitt wrote: "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."

A UN spokesperson has said the escalator breakdown happened because a videographer in front of Trump accidentally set off a safety mechanism on the escalator, the BBC reports.

Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, said 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."

Referencing the technical malfunctions in his speech, Trump told the General Assembly: “Whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble."

He continued: “I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never even received a phone call from the United Nations.

“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 have fallen, but she’s in great shape. We’re both in good shape.”

He added: “These are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter. Thank you very much.”

Dujarric aid Trump's teleprompter is operated by the White House, so the UN had "no comment" to give on the matter.