An escalator at the UN headquarters that abruptly halted just as US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump stepped onto it was stalled after a videographer accompanying them likely triggered a safety mechanism inadvertently while trying to capture their arrival, a UN spokesperson has said.
The incident occurred Tuesday morning as Trump and the First Lady were making their way to the General Assembly hall for the US President’s address to world leaders at the high-level 80th session of the UN General Assembly.
In scenes that were broadcast live and widely viewed across the globe, the escalator near the Delegate’s entrance suddenly stopped soon after Trump and Melania stepped onto it.
The abrupt halt briefly jolted the couple, who waited momentarily at the escalator and forced the First Lady to walk up the stalled escalator, with the President following closely behind.
Responding to questions on the incident, Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the President, First Lady, and their delegation had entered through the Delegate’s entrance and passed through the security gates before approaching the escalator.
In an effort to document their arrival, a videographer from the US delegation stepped onto the escalator ahead of the President and First Lady, he said.
The videographer, who was walking backwards to capture footage of the couple, reached the top just as the First Lady and President Trump stepped on at the bottom. At that moment (9:50 am), the escalator came to a sudden stop, the Spokesperson said.
"Our technician, who was present at the location, reset the escalator as soon as the delegation had climbed up to the second floor,” Dujarric said, adding that a subsequent investigation, including a readout of the machine's central processing unit, indicated that a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator.
"The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects from accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing. The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above,” he said.
As Trump reached the top of the escalator, he was greeted by UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed.
“The escalator just broke,” Trump remarked, to which Mohammed responded, “Oh my goodness.” The incident was followed by another unexpected technical glitch -- a malfunctioning teleprompter in the General Assembly hall.
Beginning his speech, the US President joked, "I don't mind making this speech without a teleprompter because the teleprompter is not working.” The comment drew laughter from world leaders gathered in the hall.
“I feel very happy to be up here with you, nevertheless, and that way you speak more from the heart,” Trump said, adding, “I can only say that whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,” prompting further laughter from the audience.
“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. We both stood,” Trump said, continuing to reference the incident humorously.
"And then a teleprompter that didn't work. These are the two things I got from the United Nations -- a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter. Thank you very much,” he said.
This was Trump’s first address to the UN General Assembly in his second term as President.
The US leader also mentioned the teleprompter and escalator incidents during a bilateral meeting with Guterres later in the day.
“Thank you very much. It's always an honour to be here. We've done this before, and this was a little more exciting because of the escalator and the teleprompter. These things happen,” Trump said in his bilateral meeting with the UN chief.
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a social media post, reacted strongly to the incident.
"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,” she said.
Leavitt also posted a screenshot of an article from The Times that said: “To mark Trump's arrival, UN 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.”
