UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23 (Reuters) – The United Nations believes it has solved the thriller of why an escalator abruptly stopped shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump stepped onto it on Tuesday – his videographer might have by chance triggered a security mechanism.
Trump jokingly complained concerning the incident throughout his speech to world leaders earlier on Tuesday after the teleprompter additionally didn’t work.
“These are the two things I got from the United Nations – a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,” he informed the 193-member meeting, to some laughter.
Nonetheless, White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wasn’t so lighthearted about it.
“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,” she posted on X after the incident.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric stated a readout of the escalator’s central processing unit indicated it “had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator.”
He stated Trump’s videographer had been touring backwards up the escalator to seize his arrival with First Woman Melania Trump.
“The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function,” Dujarric stated in a press release. “The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing.”
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the U.N. findings.
On the teleprompter, Trump informed the Basic Meeting on Tuesday: “I can only say that whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.”
Nonetheless, a U.N. official stated the White Home had operated its personal teleprompter.
After Trump completed talking, U.N. Basic Meeting President Annalena Baerbock stated: “The U.N. teleprompters are working perfectly.”
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Enhancing by Lincoln Feast.)
