White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt demanded that United Nations officials investigate whether an escalator at headquarters was “deliberately” sabotaged as President Trump and first lady Melania Trump stepped onto it Tuesday morning.
“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 on X, citing a Times of London report that staffers had been overheard joking that they might switch off the escalator and make Trump walk to the hall to give his speech.
“The safety mechanism was inadvertently triggered by someone who was ahead of the president on the escalator,” UN spokesperson Farhan Aziz Haq told the Times Tuesday.
An escalator at the United Nations ground to a halt as soon as President Trump and first lady Melania Trump set foot on it. REUTERS“The escalator was immediately reset and is in operation.”
Video captured the moment when the escalator in the entrance hall to the UN building in New York abruptly stalled as soon as the Trumps stepped onto it.
Melania, who was standing directly in front of the president and wearing high heels, jolted forward when it stopped moving.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has demanded that UN officials investigate whether this escalator at the United Nations was “deliberately” stopped this morning. APWhile the escalator adjacent to theirs was still operational, the couple opted to walk up the motionless steps of the frozen one.
UN staffers reportedly tossed around the idea of stalling escalators and elevators in the building as a way to highlight funding shortfalls the organization has faced under Trump, according to the Times of London.
“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,” the outlet reported.
President Trump arrives for the 80th session of the UN General Assembly on September 23, 2025, in New York City. Getty ImagesTrump has scrapped about $1 billion in funding for the UN since taking office in January.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Trump quipped that he has “ended seven wars” and “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,” he mused.
President Trump addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, September 23, 2025. REUTERSAt least one former Secret Service official expressed concern for how agents reacted — or didn’t — to the glitch.
“This is not hard. Don’t just stand there,” former agent Rich Staropoli told RealClearPolitics.
Staropoli argued that Trump’s security detail “should have closed ranks right around there, as close as you can be.”
“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?” he said, referring to the 2024 rally in western Pennsylvania in which the then-candidate was nearly assassinated by a crazed gunman who was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
