President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested there was “triple sabotage” at the United Nations, demanding an investigation into a stalled escalator, a malfunctioning teleprompter, and audio problems during his General Assembly speech Tuesday.
In a Truth Social post, Trump called for an immediate investigation by the U.N. of what he called “sinister events.”
“A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday — Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!” Trump wrote.
Trump referred to a report in the Times of London on Sunday where to mark his arrival, “U.N. staff members have joked that they may turn off the escalators and elevators and simply tell him they ran out of money, so he has to walk up the stairs.”
“The people that did it should be arrested!” Trump wrote. “Then, as I stood before a Television crowd of millions of people all over the World, and important Leaders in the Hall, my teleprompter didn’t work. It was stone cold dark.
“I immediately thought to myself, ‘Wow, first the escalator event, and now a bad teleprompter. What kind of a place is this?’ I then proceeded to make a Speech without a teleprompter, which kicked in about 15 minutes later.
“The good news is the Speech has gotten fantastic reviews. Maybe they appreciated the fact that very few people could have done what I did.
“And third, after making the Speech, I was told that the sound was completely off in the Auditorium where the Speech was made, that World Leaders, unless they used the interpreters’ earpieces, couldn’t hear a thing.
“The first person I saw at the conclusion of the Speech was Melania, who was sitting right up front. I said, ‘How did I do?’ And she said, ‘I couldn’t hear a word you said.'”
Trump wrote it wasn’t a coincidence but “triple sabotage at the U.N.”
“They ought to be ashamed of themselves,” he wrote. “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. All security tapes at the escalator should be saved, especially the emergency stop button. The Secret Service is involved. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
A White House spokesperson confirmed Wednesday with the Daily Mail that the Secret Service was investigating.
The U.N. disputes any foul play. Spokesman Farhan Aziz Haq told the Times that all three occurrences were genuine mishaps.
“Regarding the escalator: The safety mechanism was inadvertently triggered by someone who was ahead of the president on the escalator. The escalator was immediately reset and is in operation,” he said.
“Regarding the teleprompter, we have no comment since we don’t operate that teleprompter. The interpretation audio was heard when a non-official interpreter pressed the wrong button, which briefly allowed a non-UN interpreter to be heard.”
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said Tuesday night that a videographer from the U.S. delegation might have inadvertently triggered a “safety function” of the escalator.
But a White House official told Newsmax that the president’s team had been promised time to set up the teleprompter ahead of Trump’s speech and was ultimately barred by U.N. staff from doing so. As a result, White House staffers were trying to set up the teleprompter as the president was speaking.
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