On Wednesday, President Donald Trump called for a United Nations investigation into an escalator that made him look foolish ahead of his speech before the General Assembly. But evidence indicates that his own team was responsible for the incident.
In a post to his Truth Social account, Trump called on Secretary-General António Guterres to investigate why an escalator suddenly stopped when he and first lady Melania Trump were on their way to the speech.
“It stopped on a dime. It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first. It was only that we were each holding the handrail tightly or, it would have been a disaster,” Trump complained.
“Hate on an escalator” by Clay Jones
He added, “The people that did it should be arrested!”
Trump said “all security tapes at the escalator should be saved” and that he had involved the Secret Service in the matter. Trump also whined that his teleprompter malfunctioned and that purportedly the audio system in the building failed to adequately broadcast his speech.
Trump also complained about the elevator during the speech that he delivered on Tuesday, which prompted a response from Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary-general. He noted that a videographer from the American delegation accompanying Trump likely triggered a built-in safety mechanism at the top of the escalator because he was standing at the top while Trump and his wife were boarding.
“The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing,” Dujarric wrote.
In other words, Trump’s embarrassing, viral moment was probably caused by the team he put in place to produce his own hype video.
Related | Angry old man yells at the UN for an hour
Aside from the technical problems that have prompted yet another Trump tantrum, the speech itself was an over-the-top diatribe filled with easily disprovable falsehoods. Trump made assertions like the absurd claim that he “ended seven unendable wars” and the lie that global climate change is a “green scam.”
Trump even told the assembled world leaders that their “countries are going to hell.”
About the only place in the world where Trump’s speech was praised was from his fans at Fox News, where anchor Harris Faulkner proclaimed that he had offered up “raw truth.” Perhaps not surprisingly, Fox has also taken up Trump’s crusade about the escalator. Conspiracy theorist and Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo insisted on Wednesday that “sabotage efforts” were being employed against Trump.
Back in the real world, Trump has pursued a strategy of disengaging from the United Nations and pivoting the country toward isolationism. By pulling away from U.N.-based organizations where information on global health, artificial intelligence protections and national security are shared and discussed, Trump has made Americans more vulnerable and empowered rival nations like China.
No wonder he wants to talk about escalators instead.
