During his speech to the United Nations on September 23, 2025, President Donald Trump took a break from bragging about himself to complain about malfunctioning machines. When attempting to ascend to the podium to deliver his speech, the escalator that the president and First Lady Melania Trump were riding on suddenly froze. While they all managed to hobble to the top of the stairs, this caused Donald to spout, “All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up stopped right in the middle,” according to MSNBC. Much of his speech was spent ridiculing the U.N. over various grievances, but it seems that the escalator and a glitchy teleprompter were on the top of the president’s mind.
Ever the back door bragger, Donald took the opportunity to not only throw the U.N. under the bus, but to claim that had he won a bid to renovate the New York building several decades ago, these issues wouldn’t exist. While wishing for a Nobel Peace Prize in one hand, Donald made sure to suggest that someone was going to be in “big trouble” over the technical snafus. Even the shady Karoline Leavitt responded to the mess with a post on X, formerly Twitter, writing, “If someone at the U.N. intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately.”
While the president’s inner circle freaks out over the leader of the country having to walk up some stairs, the U.N. has responded to the controversy with some indications that the call might be coming from inside the White House.
United Nations claims Donald Trump’s team at fault for glitches
With Donald Trump starting his successful presidential bid back in 2015 by coming down an escalator, it seems that his second term is being foiled by them. With one of the many strange things about Trump being his aversion to exercise, it makes sense that he would be out for blood at having to walk up the stairs at the UN. However, according to the Associated Press, it seems as if all the items that weren’t working for the president just might be the fault of Trump’s team.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric pointed out that a videographer for Trump had scampered ahead of the president on the escalator to capture some footage, which might have caused the stoppage. There’s a “safety mechanism…designed to prevent people or objects [from] accidentally being caught…or pulled into the gearing,” Dujarric mentioned. There’s also been an uptick in turning off the escalators as a cost-cutting measure caused by Trump’s own administration dragging its feet to shell out funding for the U.N.
As for the teleprompter, an anonymous UN official divulged that the White House was the entity responsible for that piece of equipment. However, Trump has also been known to eschew teleprompters in the middle of speeches anyway, preferring to show off his acting chops by going off the cuff. Which ultimately makes this scandal feel more like a cry for attention than anything else.