US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday there were two things he got from the United Nations: “a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”
The teleprompter malfunctioned during his grievance-laden speech before the General Assembly.
Another snag occurred when first lady Melania Trump stepped on to an escalator at the New York headquarters and it ground to a halt, likely because a safety mechanism was triggered by someone in the US delegation, according to the UN.
Still, Mr Trump’s spokeswoman suggested someone at the UN may have purposefully caused the escalator mishap.
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Now the Secret Service is investigating if both the teleprompter and the escalator were tampered with, according to people familiar with the matter.
The seemingly minor episodes risked becoming a fresh source of friction after Trump blasted the UN as an ineffectual talking shop during his speech to the world body.
“I know that we have people, including United States Secret Service, who are looking into this to try to get to the bottom of it and if we find these were UN staffers who were purposely trying to trip up, literally trip up the president and the first lady of the United States, there better be accountability for those people and I will personally see to it,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday night on Fox News.
It was determined after looking at the escalator’s central processing unit that the escalator had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism was activated, according to a statement from UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
[ Laughter and darkness as Trump escalates grievances at the United NationsOpens in new window ]
A videographer from the US delegation who was travelling backwards up the escalator as the Trumps stepped on to the bottom of it “may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above”, Mr Dujarric said.
The viral moment in which the Trumps have to steady themselves before awkwardly climbing their way up the rest of metal steps captivated viewers on social media on the first day of debates for the UN gathering.
Mr Trump complained about the escalator incident not only during the General Assembly but also in a private meeting with UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.
“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. We both stood,” Mr Trump said during his address, for which he used notes because of the teleprompter issue. – Bloomberg
