The United Nations just can’t seem to help itself. On the same day President Donald Trump delivered a blistering rebuke of the globalist body at the UN General Assembly, an escalator carrying him and First Lady Melania Trump suddenly stalled—nearly causing a dangerous fall. Now, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is sounding the alarm, calling the incident what many suspect it was: sabotage.
The episode unfolded on Tuesday, September 23, as President Trump and Melania made their way through the UN’s New York headquarters. As the pair stepped onto the escalator, the machine screeched to a halt, jolting the First Lady and briefly throwing her off balance. Both President Trump and Melania were forced to climb the stairs as cameras flashed.
Leavitt, refusing to let the moment slide, pointed to reports in the *Times of London* that claimed UN staffers had been “joking” just days earlier about stopping escalators during Trump’s visit. Taking to X, she wrote:
“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.”
Later, in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Jesse Watters, Leavitt doubled down. “That’s definitely what it appears to be to me,” she said. “There was some concerning reporting over the weekend… that U.N. globalist staffers were basically plotting to set up the President of the United States.”
Leavitt confirmed the Secret Service is investigating, warning that if UN employees deliberately tampered with the escalator, accountability must follow. “If we find that these were U.N. staffers who were purposefully trying to trip up—literally trip up—the president and the first lady, well there better be consequences,” she said firmly.
Prominent Trump supporters also weighed in. The influential X account *Johnny MAGA* highlighted the seriousness of the scare: “In all seriousness, if the stopped escalator was an act of sabotage, whoever is responsible must be severely punished. Melania lost her balance and had to quickly grab the rails. The President and First Lady could have fallen and been injured.”
The UN, predictably, denied wrongdoing. Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General António Guterres, brushed the matter aside, claiming a “safety mechanism” had triggered the stoppage. He insisted a technician quickly reset the system and an internal review found no malicious intent. According to Dujarric, the safety feature was designed to prevent objects from being pulled into the machinery.
But the timing and suspicious remarks from UN staffers raised eyebrows. For years, the globalist institution has bristled at Trump’s America First agenda. From his defunding of bloated UN programs to his direct criticism of its refugee schemes, the president has never been afraid to call out the bureaucrats wasting U.S. taxpayer dollars.
For many conservatives, the escalator “malfunction” was more than just a coincidence—it was a glimpse into the contempt with which the international elite view Trump and the America First movement.
As Leavitt put it bluntly: “There better be accountability.”
