Trump claims UN escalator sabotage could have injured him and Melania; calls for arrests

President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday night that an escalator at the United Nations could have gravely injured him and First Lady Melania Trump during their Tuesday arrival at the U.N. General Assembly, and he urged that those behind what he described as sabotage be arrested. He cited three alleged incidents: the escalator malfunction, a broken teleprompter and audio problems that hindered leaders' ability to hear him.

Trump said the escalator came to a screeching halt after the couple boarded it on arrival at the U.N. building in New York, and he said they narrowly avoided a fall onto the sharp edges of the metal steps. He added that they were holding the handrails tightly in what he described as a potentially disastrous moment.

On the teleprompter, Trump said the device was dark at the start of his remarks, and he implied that the lighting and prompting contributed to a difficult delivery. The White House said the teleprompter was being operated from the White House while the U.N. said the videographer may have inadvertently triggered a safety function on the escalator. Trump also said the speech's audio was not reaching the audience fully, leaving many world leaders unable to hear him without interpreters.

UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said officials investigated the escalator and found that a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step had triggered at the top, preventing injury. He said the escalator was reset by a UN technician after the delegation had climbed to the second floor, and that the normal operation of the escalator resumed afterward. A UN official told the Daily Mail that the system is designed to allow six-language translation through earpieces, and that the setup has been standard for decades.

The White House did not immediately offer a definitive stance on whether it accepted the UN explanation. The Secret Service said it was reviewing the incident, and the White House had previously indicated that the agency was looking into it but had not issued a final assessment.

Trump used the episode to frame the United Nations as broken, saying that despite his claims of ending wars and negotiating deals, the UN had not lived up to its potential. He also said he would write to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and asked that security tapes be preserved.

Throughout the day, the United Nations and White House offered competing accounts of what happened, underscoring the tensions that often accompany high-profile moments at international forums.