Donald Trump’s UN General Assembly moments that didn’t go as planned

An escalator that refused to escalate. A teleprompter that failed to prompt. President Donald Trump encountered a pair of mishaps as he addressed the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, prompting him to chastise his host for its apparent failings in a fiery address.

“These are the two things I got from the United Nations,” Mr Trump jibed on Tuesday, including the escalator and teleprompter glitches among his list of grievances with the UN on its biggest stage.

In a fiery speech, the President also upbraided the organisation for focusing too much on climate change and positioned his domestic agenda as a global playbook for others to follow.

But according to the UN, both mishaps may have been inadvertently caused by members of the White House’s own team.

An escalator stops and a teleprompter glitches

Mr Trump and the First Lady were on their way to the General Assembly hall Tuesday morning when the escalator they had just boarded abruptly stopped. After a momentary pause, the pair climbed the remaining steps by foot.

Minutes later, Mr Trump opened his speech on the assembly floor to find something else had gone wrong.

“The teleprompter is not working,” he said.

“I can only say that whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,” he joked, triggering laughs from the delegates.

“If the First Lady wasn’t in great shape she would have fallen,” he later said, referring again to the escalator.

“But she’s in great shape, we’re both in good shape,” he said, laughing, assuring delegates that the teleprompter was again working.

The White House suggests sabotage

Though Mr Trump tried to make light of the incidents, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was more serious, repeatedly suggesting the possibility of foul play.

“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,” Ms Leavitt said in a social media post that afternoon, pointing to a report over the weekend in Britain’s Times newspaper that UN staff members had joked about turning off the escalators due to a lack of funding.

(The body is in the midst of a funding crisis, largely because the United States has refused to contribute to its regular budget since Mr Trump took office.)

In response to a question on Fox News that evening, Ms Leavitt went further.

The Secret Service was investigating both the malfunctioning escalator and broken teleprompter, she said, suggesting they could have been acts of sabotage.

She also referenced a social media post from Katie Pavlich, editor of the conservative news site Townhall.com, that said the hall’s loudspeakers amplified Mr Trump’s address less than for earlier speakers.

The Washington Post could not immediately verify the claim.

“We have people, including the United States Secret Service, who are looking into this to try to get to the bottom of it,” Ms Leavitt said.

“If we find that these were UN 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.”

The UN distances itself from both mishaps

In an unusual step, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary general, issued a note to journalists explaining the reasons behind the escalator’s malfunction.

He suggested there was a simpler explanation than foul play: A videographer from Mr Trump’s team probably triggered the machine’s emergency-stop mechanism by mistake.

“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 statement said.

It said the escalator stopped at the same time the cameraperson had reached the top. “The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function.”

Mr Dujarric also refused to be drawn into the question of the teleprompter.

“We have no comment since the teleprompter for the US President is operated by the White House,” he told reporters.

Dan Cluchey, a White House speechwriter for President Joe Biden, suggested in a social media post that it was protocol for White House officials to operate the teleprompter during such events.

“Physical scrolling is typically handled by military personnel from the Comms Agency who train for years. A WH staffer *always* runs the show. As a former WH speechwriter, this is my only area of expertise,” he wrote.

A White House official said in an email Wednesday afternoon that time had been allocated before the address for Trump Administration staff to set up the teleprompter.

“Ultimately, they were barred by UN staff from doing so, so White House staff were trying to set the teleprompter up as the President was speaking,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share internal processes.

Macron calls Trump from the sidewalk

French President Emmanuel Macron also experienced an inconvenience on Tuesday, when he was among those to get caught on the wrong side of a New York City roadblock.

Police had blocked off a Manhattan intersection in anticipation of Trump’s motorcade as the French leader was trying to make his way to the French Consulate.

But unlike most ordinary New Yorkers, Mr Macron had a direct line to the White House.

“How are you? Guess what, I’m waiting on the street because everything is frozen for you,” Mr Macron said into the phone, apparently on a call with Mr Trump.

According to the video, the French leader also tried to negotiate unsuccessfully with a New York City police officer to let his delegation through. “I’m sorry President, I’m really sorry. It’s just that everything’s been frozen right now,” the officer responded.

According to Brut, the French outlet that caught the moment on camera, the road was cleared and Mr Macron was allowed through.

Such delays are not uncommon during meetings of the UN General Assembly, which requires a massive policing and traffic operation to secure the comings and goings of delegates from around the world.

As New York City prepared to welcome delegations from almost 200 countries, Mayor Eric Adams said the police department was deploying thousands of officers to protect residents and visitors.

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