Featured Image Credit: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Topics: News, US News, Donald Trump
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: News, US News, Donald Trump
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a warning to the UN as she announced they were investigating a technical hitch that saw an escalator stop as Donald Trump tried to get on it.
Speaking at the General Assembly in New York City, Trump’s visit to the UN didn’t exactly go to plan.
Trump seemed to laugh it off as things didn’t go right, namely an escalator he was on stopped suddenly while he was on it.
And it's safe to say Karoline Leavitt was less than impressed with the whole situation.
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Speaking to Fox News, she said: “If we find that these were UN and staffers who were purposefully trying to trip up, literally trip up the president and the first lady of the United States, well, there better be accountability for those people. And I will personally see to it.”
She again reiterated her message on social media, writing on Twitter: “If someone at the U.N. intentionally stopped the escalator … they need to be fired and investigated immediately.”
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, countered this by stating that the unfortunate mishap happened simply because someone in front of Trump accidentally set off a safety mechanism on the escalator, causing it to stop.
However, prior to Trump’s speech, Leavitt highlighted that a report in the Times of London newspaper on Sunday stated that UN staff members had joked that they would turn off the escalators and ‘tell him they ran out of money’ amid sweeping US funding cuts.
As well as this, Trump ended up having another mishap as his teleprompter seemed to stop working at the start of his speech.
Speaking on the matter, Trump seemed to take a dig at the UN.
He said: “Whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.”
He went on to seemingly joke that these two incidents were tied to the UN’s multiple failures and lack of support for his peace efforts.
He added: “I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never even received a phone call from the United Nations.
“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that, on the way up, stopped right in the middle. If the first lady wasn’t in great shape, she would have fallen, but she’s in great shape. We’re both in good shape.
“These are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter. Thank you very much.”
The UN also had a simple explanation for the teleprompter issue as well, despite Trump’s claims.
Dujarric said: “Regarding the teleprompter, we have no comment since the teleprompter for the US president is operated by the White House.”