General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump's Thirst for Being Filmed Caused Escalatorgate
The United Nations has hit back at White House conspiracy theories that Escalatorgate was an inside job.
Trump, 79, and first lady Melania, 55, were forced to walk up the escalator at the U.N. headquarters in New York when it malfunctioned ahead of his big speech.
It abruptly stopped, with incredible comic timing, just as Trump stepped onto the moving stairway with the first lady, in front of the worlds media.
The White House said it was probing whether the escalator was intentionally stopped to humiliate him, but the U.N. said Trumps videographer may have triggered a safety mechanism.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, said in a statement that the escalator may have stopped because Trumps videographer was walking backwards to film the president and the first lady.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-thirst-for-being-filmed-caused-escalatorgate-un-says/
It was you all along, ya media-hungry pig!

Orrex
(66,110 posts)tanyev
(47,928 posts)Or maybe the whole thing will be dropped and forgotten now that they got their 15 minutes of complaining on national TV out of it.
colorado_ufo
(6,154 posts)at the parade in England? Surely someone timed the horse's morning hay and oats perfectly to have the horse relieve himself (or herself?) at that exact moment!
rubbersole
(10,636 posts)Pinback
(13,407 posts) Trump playing sparrow to his royal betters.
wcmagumba
(4,766 posts)
Orrex
(66,110 posts)JustABozoOnThisBus
(24,381 posts)PSPS
(14,976 posts)Volaris
(11,084 posts)Tick tock, motherfucker...
PSPS
(14,976 posts)Volaris
(11,084 posts)perhaps SO much so that they really do believe this will hurt dems more than trump.
I think it's gonna pass.
IcyPeas
(24,314 posts)they would've laughed and then walked up the escalator.
Trump has to make a spectacle about it.
Obama photographer Pete Souza posted this pic of Obama on that UN escalator⦠www.instagram.com/p/DO9GFjUEZi...
— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) 2025-09-24T04:16:34.089Z
NH Ethylene
(31,216 posts)Cha
(314,680 posts)Ass he is... they're laughing at him Even More Now.
Passages
(3,654 posts)Mr& Mrs Demagogue-Felon
NNadir
(36,657 posts)He doesn't need a stalled escalator to do that.
He's just too stupid to realize that.
BidenRocks
(2,294 posts)His version had them halfway up and almost fell.
BULLSHIT!
They never started to go up before it stopped.
What a WHINER!
rubbersole
(10,636 posts)And start selling merch.
Makes me think of him lying on the escalator with his fist raised, yelling Fight! Fight! Fight! I hate AI slop, so I wont feed the prompt into an image generator, but somebody probably will.
Ping Tung
(3,765 posts)usedtobedemgurl
(1,851 posts)It says they stopped the escalator to embarrass him? Well, Dr. Push Pills Ronnie said Trump was the healthiest president ever! I have to believe him. Why would he lie? If Trump is that healthy, why would climbing a simple set of stairs embarrass him? I should think it would only embarrass him if they had been lying about how healthy he has been all along. *gasp*
Emile
(37,928 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(170,526 posts)Some Republicans suggested the U.N. had targeted Donald Trump with an escalator malfunction. Evidently, the truth was more benign.
The rapid rise and sudden fall of the United Nations escalator âcontroversyâ www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
— Margie (@paeznyc.bsky.social) 2025-09-24T21:18:52.855Z
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/rapid-rise-sudden-fall-united-nation-escalator-controversy-rcna233450
Evidently, the truth was more benign. NBC News reported:
The United Nations has concluded its one-day investigation into the mysterious halting of President Donald Trumps escalator Tuesday as he arrived at the U.N. General Assembly. The accidental culprit? A White House videographer who most likely tripped a safety mechanism.
A U.N. spokesperson explained: 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. The [White House] videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above......
All of this, of course, came before the public learned that it was a White House videographer that apparently triggered the escalators safety measures.
Kevin Kruse, a historian at Princeton University, noted soon after: This is the perfect encapsulation of Trumpism because of its obsession with imagery, the White House crew caused a problem but blamed it on other people, leading to MAGA making threats against the United Nations for their own screw up.
struggle4progress
(124,703 posts)that may have been triggered by his videographer, the United Nations has said ...
Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary General António Guterres, said the videographer reached the top of the escalator as the president and first lady mounted the steps at the bottom.
"At that moment (09:50am), the escalator came to a stop," Dujarric said.
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", he added ...
Safety mechanism caused Trump escalator malfunction, UN says
22 hours ago
Nardine Saad
BBC News
struggle4progress
(124,703 posts)By EDITH M. LEDERER
Updated 10:28 PM EDT, September 23, 2025
UNITED NATIONS (AP) President Donald Trump broke from his prepared remarks at the United Nations on Tuesday to bemoan an inoperable escalator and a defective teleprompter, using the incidents to portray the global body as dysfunctional ...
Stephane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, said a videographer from the U.S. delegation who ran ahead of him triggered the stop mechanism 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, Dujarric said in a statement. The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function ...
https://apnews.com/article/trump-un-escalator-teleprompter-ddfc0875301f29d71625b353f2c2f832
John1956PA
(4,499 posts)The videographer may have been stepping on and off of the top of the escalator which produced a series of breaks in the beam which the sensor interpreted as a person who had fallen.
LetMyPeopleVote
(170,526 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(170,526 posts)