US President Donald Trump is calling for an investigation into incidents that he called “triple sabotage” during his visit to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. He took to Truth Social to assert that a string of technical mishaps, including a stopped escalator, a teleprompter malfunction, and audio problems, were intentional attempts to discredit him.
“A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday — Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!” said Trump in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, relaying the chain of events.
“These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,” Trump wrote about the technical issues at the beginning of his speech on Tuesday morning in New York. He also gave additional detail and brought up the problem of “completely off” audio.
“The Secretary-General informed the US Permanent Mission that he had already ordered a thorough investigation, and he conveyed that the UN is ready to cooperate in full transparency with relevant US authorities on this matter to determine what caused the incidents referred to by the United States,” said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN secretary general, in a statement released Wednesday evening.
The US president’s general hostilities for the international body, whose effectiveness he has frequently questioned this week, is reflected in his petty complaints. Trump criticised the technical issues saying, “No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do.”
He claimed that the escalator leading to the Main Speaking Floor first screeched to a stop. “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.”
He went on to say, “This was absolutely sabotage, citing a report published in the London Times over the weekend that said UN employees had cracked jokes about shutting down lifts and escalators in anticipation of Trump’s visit. “The people that did it should be arrested!”
Trump and Melania tried to use the escalator on Tuesday during the UNGA 2025, but the escalator stopped when “a built-in safety mechanism” was activated, according to Dujarric. He clarified in a lengthy message on Tuesday that a videographer in the US delegation might have set off the system.
Trump went on to describe how, when he went to deliver his speech to the UNGA, the teleprompter was originally “stone cold dark.”
The UN and the Trump administration have disagreed about who should be held responsible for the technical glitch. One White House official said that the UN’s machinery was to blame, while a UN official claimed that the White House supervised operating the president’s prompter.
Trump said following his speech, he was informed 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.”
As he demanded a probe and the preservation of the escalator’s security footage, Trump said that he would be writing to the UN leadership. The US Secret Service is involved in the matter, he said.
“This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. I’m sending a copy of this letter to the Secretary General, and I demand an immediate investigation,” he said.
In support of the Secret Service’s investigation, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said Wednesday that the embassy has sent formal demands to UN Secretary General António Guterres regarding the technical issues, which he said include interruptions of Trump’s speech with Portuguese interpretation.
In a series of tweets he said, “The United States will not tolerate threats to our security or dignity at international forums, we expect swift cooperation and decisive action. These lapses are unacceptable and symptomatic of a broken institution that pose serious safety and security risks.”
In a tweet, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed concerns about whether the incident was intentional. “If someone at the UN intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately.” The White House also demanded an investigation into the matter.
“To mark Trump’s arrival, UN staff members have joked that they may turn off the escalators and elevators and simply tell him they ran out of money, so he has to walk up the stairs,” stated The Times in an article. Leavitt shared a screenshot of the article to support her claim.