President Donald Trump made a startling assertion on Wednesday night, suggesting that he and First Lady Melania Trump narrowly escaped serious harm due to an issue with the escalator at the United Nations.

During his visit to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump alleged he was undermined, citing the escalator malfunction, a faulty teleprompter, and difficulties with the assembly hall’s audio system as evidence.

‘A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday – Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!’ Trump began. 

He noted how the escalator, which he boarded directly after entering the UN building in New York City, ‘came to a screeching halt.’

‘The escalator halted abruptly,’ he remarked. ‘It’s a wonder that Melania and I didn’t end up tumbling forward onto the sharp steel steps, headfirst.’

‘It was only that we were each holding the handrail tightly or, it would have been a disaster,’ he added. 

Echoing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who had cited a report in the Sunday Times that said UN staff had joked about turning the escalators and elevators off to prank the president, Trump referred to the escalator incident as ‘absolutely sabotage.’ 

‘The people that did it should be arrested!’ Trump said. 

He then turned to the teleprompter. 

‘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?”‘ he wrote. 

UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told the Daily Mail Wednesday morning that the White House was operating Trump’s teleprompter at the time. 

The president also charged that the audio wasn’t piping out to the audience when he was delivering his speech to the body. 

‘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,’ he said. 

A UN official told the Daily Mail that the audio was set up that way by design. 

‘The sound system was designed to allow people at their seats to hear speeches being translated into six different languages through earpieces. It has been like this for decades,’ the official said. 

It appears nobody told the president or first lady about this ahead of time. 

‘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 continued. 

‘This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN,’ Trump said. ‘They ought to be ashamed of themselves.’

The president said he was writing a letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres, asking him to investigate the matter. 

He asked that all security tapes be saved. 

The White House previously confirmed that the Secret Service was looking into the escalator incident – however the Secret Service has not responded to the Daily Mail’s additional request for comment. 

In a statement Tuesday, Dujarric said that Trump’s videographer, who can be seen boarding the escalator several seconds before the first couple, likely triggered an emergency stop. 

The videographer was seen walking backward up the steps. 

‘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,’ Dujarric said. 

‘The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing,’ he said. ‘The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above.’

The UN’s technician reset the escalator ‘as soon as the delegation had climbed up to the second floor,’ Dujarric also said. 

The escalator was observed by the Daily Mail working properly the rest of the morning. 

A White House spokesperson wouldn’t say Wednesday morning if Trump administration officials believed the UN’s explanation.  

During his speech, Trump used the broken escalator and teleprompter to make a broader point that the UN was broken. 

‘I ended seven wars, dealt with leaders of each country, and never even received a call from the UN offering to help in finalizing the deal,’ Trump complained. 

‘The United Nations wasn’t there for us. They weren’t there. I thought of it after the fact, not during these negotiations…what is the purpose of the UN? It’s not even coming close to living up to that potential,’ he said. 

‘These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,’ the president then said. 

He reiterated those comments Wednesday night. 

‘No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

And despite any audio issues, Trump boasted that the fiery speech was a success.

‘The good news is the Speech has gotten fantastic reviews,’ he said. ‘Maybe they appreciated the fact that very few people could have done what I did.’