A malfunctioning escalator and teleprompter at the United Nations’ New York City headquarters drew President Trump’s frustration on Tuesday — though the U.N. says a videographer from Mr. Trump’s delegation may have triggered the escalator’s safety shutoff.
Shortly after Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump entered U.N. headquarters to address world leaders at this year’s General Assembly session, they stepped onto an escalator. But the machine ground to a halt almost immediately, forcing both Trumps to start climbing the stairs on their own, videos of his arrival show.
Later, as Mr. Trump began his speech to the General Assembly, he remarked that his teleprompter wasn’t working. “I can only say that whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,” the president said, drawing laughs from the audience.
The president brought up the two mishaps later in his speech, framing them as metaphors for what he views as the incompetence of the United Nations — which he accused of offering up little more than “empty words.”
“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’ve fallen,” the president said. “These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”
Alexi J. Rosenfeld / Getty Images / ALEXI ROSENFELN 
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later floated a different explanation, writing in a post on X: “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.”
Leavitt shared a screenshot from a Times of London article that reported U.N. workers had been overheard joking they might intentionally shut off escalators during Mr. Trump’s visit and blame funding shortfalls. There is no evidence that U.N. staff followed through on those jokes.
The press secretary later told Fox News that the Secret Service is looking into the matter.
“When you put all of this together, it doesn’t look like a coincidence to me,” Leavitt said on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime.” “And if we find that these were U.N. 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 for those people.”
However, a U.N. spokesman said Tuesday the escalator may have suddenly stopped because of a videographer from the U.S. delegation who can be seen walking ahead of the president and first lady on the escalator, seemingly to film their arrival.
“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 safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing. The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above,” Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said in a statement.
Separately, a U.N. official told CBS News that the White House operated the teleprompter for Mr. Trump when it malfunctioned during his speech.
A federal law enforcement source confirmed to CBS News that the Secret Service is looking into the matter.
CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment.
Mr. Trump’s speech came as his second administration distances itself from the U.N., withdrawing the U.S. from agencies like the Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization. The administration has also cut its financial contributions to the U.N. and criticized its approach to Israel.
“The U.N. has such tremendous potential,” the president said in his speech, “but it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential.”
contributed to this report.
