Fox News is trying so hard to make 'Escalatorgate' happen

President Donald Trump, center, and First Lady Melania Trump, upper right, walk up the escalator after it stalled as he rode up to the United Nations General Assembly Hall on Sept. 23.

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, a reliable spreader of MAGA propaganda, did her best to push the debunked claim that shadowy United Nations personnel somehow sabotaged a malfunctioning escalator and a teleprompter in an effort to humiliate President Donald Trump during his embarrassing appearance there on Tuesday.

“Then the sabotage efforts, that we think were sabotage,” Bartiromo told Republican Rep. William Timmons of South Carolina. “[Trump] going on the escalator and the escalator stops, the teleprompter going down. What went on yesterday at the U.N. General Assembly, congressman?”

“Listen, the UN hasn't been in our corner for decades, and they're playing these fun little games,” Timmons replied. 

UN officials responded diplomatically after Trump blamed them for his series of mishaps, explaining that the escalator incident was likely caused by someone in his entourage who accidentally triggered a safety mechanism while rushing ahead. As for the teleprompter issue, officials noted that those responsibilities are handled by White House personnel during presidential speeches.

---

Related | Angry old man yells at the UN for an hour

---

Trump needed no help embarrassing himself—and the United States—in front of the global community at the UN, delivering an unhinged spectacle of ego tied up with delusions of grandeur. 

MAGA conspiracies like ‘Escalatorgate’ are designed to frame those in power as victims of secret forces and feed into the persecution complex that Trump and his allies exploit. An enduring sense of aggrievement is MAGA’s hallmark, after all.