Trump's Thirst for Being Filmed Caused Escalatorgate

[Jilly_in_VA]

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 world’s media.

The White House said it was probing whether the escalator was intentionally stopped to humiliate him, but the U.N. said Trump’s 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 Trump’s 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]

1. It's a shame that he didn't fall to his doom

[tanyev]

2. Karoline "I Demand Accountability" Leavitt gonna fire the videographer?

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]

13. When is she going to ask for a Congressional investigation into the horse that took a dump right in front of him

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]

14. Antifa oats...

[Pinback]

17. Excellent portrayal of horse and sparrow economic theory

— Trump playing sparrow to his royal betters.

[wcmagumba]

3. Trump is "probing" the escalator...LOL...Ewwww....

[Orrex]

5. It's his only hope to get a rise

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. Now you have Vance interested in escalators

[PSPS]

4. Is this the latest talk-about-this-instead-of-epstein-gate?

[Volaris]

7. Whatever. The final vote for the house discharge petition should be sworn in by business close tomorrow.

Tick tock, motherfucker...

[PSPS]

21. Don't worry. There's bound to be a "sudden" loss of enough republican votes.

[Volaris]

22. Its Massie, Mace, Marge and Boebert. ALL of them are utterly maga batshit,

perhaps SO much so that they really do believe this will hurt dems more than trump.

I think it's gonna pass.

[IcyPeas]

6. If this had happened to Biden or Obama

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]

10. No hands! I bet Trump can't do that. n/t

[Cha]

16. And show the World what a Whiny Stupid

Ass he is... they're laughing at him Even More Now.

[Passages]

8. I was kinda hoping it was true.

Mr& Mrs Demagogue-Felon

[NNadir]

9. He humiliates himself whenever he opens his mouth.

He doesn't need a stalled escalator to do that.

He's just too stupid to realize that.

[BidenRocks]

12. Yet another Chumpian LIE!

His version had them halfway up and almost fell.

BULLSHIT!

They never started to go up before it stopped.

What a WHINER!

[rubbersole]

15. Next they'll make it the 3rd assassination attempt.

And start selling merch.

[Pinback]

18. LOL!

Makes me think of him lying on the escalator with his fist raised, yelling “Fight! Fight! Fight!” I hate AI slop, so I won’t feed the prompt into an image generator, but somebody probably will.

[Ping Tung]

19. Were he and Melania afraid that the escalator was going to take a Radical Left turn?

[usedtobedemgurl]

20. This *must* be fake news

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]

23. Trump was upset because his cankles were inflamed.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

24. MaddowBlog-The rapid rise and sudden fall of the United Nations escalator 'controversy'

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 ‘controversy’ 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

During his ridiculous address to the U.N. General Assembly, Donald Trump covered quite a bit of ground, but his speech included a curious reference to, of all things, an escalator......

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 Trump’s 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 escalator’s 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]

25. ... An escalator used by Donald Trump abruptly stopped because of a safety mechanism

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]

26. UN says Trump's team to blame

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]

27. There is probably a light beam which operates the sensor.

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]

28. This is getting silly and the internet is responding to trump's fixation on escalators

I like the Onion's suggestion

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

29. This made me smile