During a United Nations address on Tuesday, former U.S. President Donald Trump deviated from his prepared speech to complain about a broken escalator and a faulty teleprompter. He used these technical difficulties to highlight what he perceived as the global organization’s inefficiencies.
Gesturing emphatically, Trump remarked, “All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that, on the way up, stopped right in the middle.”
However, it appears the root cause of the problems lay closer to the President himself.
According to Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the Secretary-General, a videographer from the U.S. delegation, who rushed ahead, inadvertently activated the escalator’s stop mechanism at the top. Dujarric explained, “The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects from accidentally getting caught or pulled into the gearing. The videographer may have triggered this safety function by mistake.”
As his speech began, Trump also pointed out that the teleprompter wasn’t working, humorously suggesting that whoever was responsible for it was ‘in big trouble.’ A UN official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information, confirmed that the teleprompter was, in fact, being operated by the White House team.
Despite the specific causes, malfunctioning escalators are a common occurrence at the UN, a fact well-known to both staff and regular visitors.
In recent months, UN offices in New York and Geneva have occasionally switched off elevators and escalators as part of cost-cutting measures, necessitated by a ‘liquidity crisis’ affecting the global body.
This financial strain is partly attributed to delayed funding contributions from the United States, which is the largest donor to the United Nations.