President Trump also expressed anger that his teleprompter stopped in mid-sentence, forcing him to deliver his remarks from paper.
On Wednesday, in his Truth Social rant, the president added a grievance to his list: he claimed his speech could only be heard in the great hall if attendees were wearing the ubiquitous earpiece interpreter translation devices.
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Calling these three issues “sinister,” “a real disgrace,” “sabotage,” and even “triple sabotage,” Trump described the escalator ride, declaring that it “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.”
As video showed, and Fox Business noted, the first lady appeared unfazed. Pausing and looking back at her husband, she simply walked up the escalator.
Trump pointed to a piece in The Times of London that claimed some UN workers had joked about turning the escalator off for Trump, but according to multiple reports, the culprit was a member of Trump’s own team.
Nevertheless, Trump called for the perpetrators to be “arrested!”
He then complained about his teleprompter, explaining, “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?'”
Telling his supporters, “I’m sending a copy of this letter to the Secretary General, and I demand an immediate investigation,” Trump lashed out again at the UN: “No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do.”
Fox Business once again jumped on the bandwagon on Thursday morning, declaring the escalator stopping put the President in danger.
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Host Maria Bartiromo told viewers that Trump “wants answers after the escalator stopped as soon as he and the First Lady stepped on it.”
In contrast to Trump’s diatribe, Bartiromo remarked, “Look how great Melania was. She’s unfazed. She walks on it, it stops, she turns around to the president, and she just leads the president up and walks.”
Bartiromo then declared, “this could have been a massive, massive issue,” with “the president being frozen there in one place, makes him vulnerable.”
She appeared to be suggesting he could have been a sitting (or standing) target.
“The UN reports,” Bartiromo continued, “that they’ve had, they ordered a thorough investigation, and are, quote, ready to cooperate in full transparency, with relevant U.S. Authorities.”
But the UN has also stated that the escalator being stopped happened after a member of Trump’s team, a videographer, at the top of the escalator may have accidentally tripped a safety device.
“The escalator had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator,” UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said, according to NBC News. “The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing. The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above.”
NBC added that a United Nations official “told NBC News that the White House was responsible for operating Trump’s teleprompter.”
Sarah Longwell, founder and publisher of The Bulwark, remarked, “Trump not being able to go up an escalator is definitely more important than the things going up in voter’s lives: grocery prices, insurance premiums, inflation, consumer goods impacted by tariffs, etc. But sure, Escalator-gate!”
Former Obama official Tommy Vietor asked, “Do the Trump stooges pushing this line not realize that it makes him look ridiculous and weak?”
Former Hillary Clinton advisor Zac Petkanas observed: “People can’t afford to pay for groceries and small businesses are failing thanks to the Republican tariffs. But Fox News is focused on Trump having to walk up some stairs and the White House is focused on building a $200 million ballroom. They just have the wrong priorities.”
The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, a political scientist, snarked: “Wow, walking up an escalator! That alone is worth a Nobel prize!”
In a video posted to social media, Katherine Clark, the Democratic Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives, remarked: “I’ll tell you what triple sabotage is. One, it is making life harder and more expensive with his policies on the American people. Two, it is his attitude of the beatings will continue on working people until their morale improves. And three, he is now threatening to shut down government in order to take away your healthcare. Think about that.”
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