Karoline Leavitt alleges sabotage over Trump’s UN escalator malfunction

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has voiced her suspicions about President Donald Trump’s rocky trip to the United Nations, suggesting the technical glitches were no accident.

It began with an escalator. Trump and first lady Melania Trump stepped onto one at the UN building in Manhattan, only for it to suddenly grind to a halt.

Karoline Leavitt claims UN staff tried to sabotage Trump with glitches

Speaking on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime, Karoline Leavitt hinted this wasn’t just bad luck.

“There was some concerning reporting over the weekend from the London Times, as you pointed out, that UN globalist staffers were basically plotting to set up the president of the United States,” Leavitt told Watters. “And first it was the escalator, then it was the teleprompter, and then Katie Pavlich from Townhall, who we offered a seat in the press pool to cover the president’s historic speech today, noticed that the audio inside of the room was much lower and different for the president of the United States than the previous speaker."

Leavitt said the Secret Service is on the case. “So when you put all of this together, it doesn’t look like a coincidence to me. And I know that we have people, including the United States Secret Service, who are looking into this to try to get to the bottom of it,” she said. “And if we find that these were UN 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.”

Karoline Leavitt demands probe into Trump UN escalator stop

Before her Fox News appearance, Leavitt had already sounded the alarm on social media.

"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. The Times reported this on September 21," Leavitt posted on X, sharing a snippet of the article that read, "To mark Trump's arrival, UN staffers have joked that they may turn off the escalators and elevators and simply tell him they ran out of money, so he has to walk up the stairs." 

Trump himself played off the incident in his speech. “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," he quipped.

But a UN official told the Associated Press the escalator stopped because someone traveling with Trump accidentally hit the stop lever.

Trump shrugs off teleprompter freeze

The escalator wasn’t the only hiccup. Trump’s teleprompter froze during his address, but the president brushed it off with a jab at whoever was in charge.

“I don’t mind making this speech without a teleprompter because the teleprompter is not working… that way you speak more from the heart — I can only say that whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,” he joked, before switching to paper notes.

Trump also went off-script to reminisce about his real estate days. “Many years ago, a very successful real estate developer in New York, known as Donald J. Trump, I bid on the renovation and rebuilding of this very United Nations complex… I realized that they did not know what they were doing when it came to construction… much more expensive at the time and produced a far inferior product,” he said.

UN faces poor poll ratings as Trump taps Mike Waltz envoy

Leavitt’s accusations came as a new Gallup poll showed that 63% of Americans believe the UN is doing a poor job, while just 32% gave it positive marks. The poll was released on September 21, ahead of the annual General Assembly debate.

Meanwhile, the US has a new representative at the UN. The Senate confirmed Trump’s former national security adviser, Mike Waltz, as ambassador. In July, Trump announced the US would once again withdraw from UNESCO, citing left-leaning bias. 

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