Trump Demands Investigation and Arrest Over 'Triple Sabotage' at United Nations Headquarters
US President Donald Trump has demanded an investigation and arrest after claiming that he was a victim of "Triple Sabotage" at the United Nations headquarters during his visit on Tuesday (September 23). He mentioned the elevator incident, the audio quality, and the broken teleprompter while demanding an inquiry into the matter.
Trump claimed that the broken elevator could have left him and First Lady Melania Trump seriously injured. He said the incident would have turned into a disaster if they had fallen forward on the sharp edges of the steel steps. According to him, he and the First Lady managed to reach safely by tightly holding the handrail.
Previously, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said, citing a report in the Sunday Times, that UN staff had joked about pranking Trump by turning the escalators and elevators off. Referring to the escalator incident as "absolutely sabotage", he demanded an inquiry.
Trump also claimed that the attendees of the United Nations' General Assembly could barely hear him. Furiously remarking about the audio quality, he said, quoting his wife that she could hardly hear him out, though she was sitting right up front.
Here is the Complete Statement by Donald Trump:
A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday — Not one, not two, but three very sinister events! First, the escalator going up to the Main Speaking Floor came to a screeching halt. 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. This was absolutely sabotage, as noted by a day's earlier "post" in The London Times that said UN workers "joked about turning off an escalator." The people who did it should be arrested! Then, as I stood before a Television crowd of millions of people all over the World, and important Leaders in the Hall, my teleprompter didn't work. 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?" I then proceeded to make a Speech without a teleprompter, which kicked in about 15 minutes later. The good news is the Speech has gotten fantastic reviews. Maybe they appreciated the fact that very few people could have done what I did. 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. 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." 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. No wonder the United Nations hasn't been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do. All security tapes at the escalator should be saved, especially the emergency stop button. The Secret Service is involved. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
UN Responds
Responding to the US President's claims, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that Trump's videographer, who boarded the escalator a few seconds before the President and First Lady, might have triggered an emergency stop.
"In an effort to document their arrival, a videographer from the US delegation stepped onto the escalator ahead of the President and First Lady. As the videographer, who was traveling backwards up the escalator, reached the top, the First Lady, followed by President Trump, each mounted the steps at the bottom. At that moment (9:50am), the escalator came to a stop. 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. The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects from accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing. The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above," Dujarric told Daily Mail.
Regarding the broken teleprompter, Dujarric said that the White House was operating the teleprompter at that time. Meanwhile, another UN official said the sound system was designed in that way for decades.
"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.
On Wednesday evening, UN Secretary General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric released an official statement. In the statement, the Secretary-General informed the US Permanent Mission that a thorough investigation has been ordered.
"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," the statement read.