The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 23, 2025, was supposed to be a showcase of world leaders addressing pressing international concerns. Instead, a mechanical mishap involving President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s journey up an escalator at the UN headquarters briefly stole the spotlight, igniting controversy, speculation, and a swirl of political accusations.
It began as a routine arrival. President Trump, accompanied by the First Lady, approached the escalator on their way to address the assembly. According to video footage and multiple reports cited by Fox News and The Times of London, two men—later identified as part of the U.S. delegation—stepped onto the escalator ahead of the presidential couple. Suddenly, the escalator ground to a halt, forcing the Trumps to walk up the now-motionless steps before making their entrance to the General Assembly Hall.
The incident, which might have otherwise been chalked up to a common mechanical glitch, quickly escalated into a political flashpoint. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, referencing a Times of London report, took to X (formerly Twitter) to demand swift action. “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,” Leavitt wrote, echoing concerns that the malfunction may have been deliberate.
Fueling the suspicion were reports that UN staffers had been overheard joking about stalling escalators and elevators as a tongue-in-cheek protest against U.S. funding cuts. The Times of London described these remarks: “One idea doing the rounds was to turn off the escalators and lifts and simply tell Trump they ran out of money, so he had to walk up the stairs.” Since taking office in January 2025, President Trump had slashed about $1 billion in funding for the UN, a move that had not gone unnoticed by the organization’s staff.
Despite the swirl of speculation, United Nations officials were quick to offer a technical explanation. UN spokesperson Farhan Aziz Haq told The Times that the safety mechanism on the escalator was “inadvertently triggered by someone who was ahead of the president on the escalator.” Further details emerged from Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who explained to Fox News that a videographer from the U.S. delegation, in an effort to document the Trumps’ arrival, stepped onto the escalator ahead of them. The videographer, apparently traveling backwards to get a better shot, reached the top just as the First Lady and President Trump mounted the steps at the bottom. At that moment, the escalator stopped—precisely at 9:50 a.m.
Dujarric elaborated on the technical cause: “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 accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing.” He added that a UN technician reset the escalator as soon as the delegation had climbed up to the second floor and emphasized, “There was nothing nefarious about what happened.”
Still, the incident did little to quell the White House’s concerns. Leavitt doubled down, insisting on a thorough investigation and, if foul play were found, the firing of those responsible. The White House referred further inquiries to Leavitt’s public statements, while the Secret Service did not immediately respond to media requests for comment.
The episode also drew criticism of the Secret Service’s response. Former agent Rich Staropoli told RealClearPolitics, “This is not hard. Don’t just stand there. Somebody’s got to make a call. We’re going to stand here like a bunch of morons, like we did in Butler. Or are we going to scoop up the first lady and POTUS and either go down or go up?” Staropoli’s remarks referenced a prior security scare at a 2024 rally in Pennsylvania, underscoring ongoing scrutiny of presidential protection protocols.
Adding to the day’s technical woes, President Trump’s teleprompter froze during his address to the General Assembly. Forced to improvise, he drew laughter from the audience with a characteristic quip: “I feel very happy to be up here with you, nevertheless — and that way you speak more from the heart — I can only say that whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.” The teleprompter resumed a few minutes into his speech, but Trump seized the opportunity to riff on both setbacks. “I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of these countries and never even received a phone call from the United Nations offering to help in finalizing the deal,” he said. “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’ve fallen. But she’s in great shape. We’re both in good shape. We both stood. These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”
The story, quickly dubbed “Escalator Gate” by some commentators, became fodder for critics and supporters alike. Outlets such as The Daily lampooned the White House’s reaction, calling it “the most conspiracy-laden in American history” and accusing the administration of turning a common mishap into a political grievance. “There is virtually nothing on the planet that this administration won’t turn into a grievance or conspiracy,” the outlet opined, noting that all escalators in the building had stopped, suggesting a broader technical issue rather than targeted sabotage.
Meanwhile, the incident shone a light on the tense relationship between the Trump administration and the United Nations, particularly in the wake of significant U.S. funding cuts. While some UN staffers’ offhand jokes about budget-driven inconveniences may have stoked suspicions, the official investigation and technical readout pointed to an accidental trigger by a member of Trump’s own delegation—not a deliberate act of sabotage.
The day’s events—equal parts farce and drama—offered a glimpse into the fraught atmosphere surrounding international diplomacy in 2025. For a few surreal minutes, the fate of a world leader (and the world’s attention) rested not on grand speeches or sweeping policy, but on the unpredictable mechanics of an escalator and a faulty teleprompter. As the dust settled, the real story became less about conspiracy and more about the everyday unpredictabilities that even the most powerful must sometimes face.
