President Donald Trump was greeted at the U.N. General Assembly with a broken escalator and a broken teleprompter – and he used those examples to slap the United Nations in the face.
The president appeared at the U.N.’s headquarters Tuesday morning in Manhattan with First Lady Melania Trump – dressed in a cream suit and caramel top – at his side.
He said ‘thank you’ to reporters and headed toward an escalator, followed by his entourage, ahead of his big speech. A moment later, he was following the first lady – in her tall heels – up the steps as the escalator had stopped.
Once the president got to the podium in the assembly hall, he realized the teleprompter was broken.
‘I can only say whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,’ he chuckled.
He had already planned to criticize the international body, but the back-to-back screw-ups provided him fresh fodder.
‘All I got from the United Nations was an escalator on the way up that stopped in the middle,’ Trump said. ‘If the first lady wasn’t in great shape, she would’ve fallen.’
Trump, again, boasted about the many conflicts he claims he’s put an end to. On Tuesday, he blasted the U.N. for not trying to help with any of them.
‘I ended seven wars, dealt with leaders of each country, and never even received a call from the U.N. offering to help in finalizing the deal,’ Trump complained.
‘The United Nations wasn’t there for us. They weren’t there. I thought of it after the fact, not during these negotiations…what is the purpose of the UN? It’s not even coming close to living up to that potential,’ he said.
‘These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,’ Trump added.
The president suggested that the grudge was several decades long.
‘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,’ Trump said. ‘I said at the time that I would do it for $500 million.’
‘They decided to go another direction that produced a far inferior product,’ the president said.
Trump said he had warned the U.N. about cost overruns, and those indeed happened.
‘As far as I’m concerned, frankly, looking at the building and getting stuck in the escalator, they still haven’t finished the job,’ Trump said.
‘Unfortunately, many things in the United Nations are happening just like that, but on an even – much bigger scale,’ the president added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Trump would take the ‘globalists’ to task in his remarks before the U.N.
He will ‘touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,’ Leavitt said.
At the U.N., Trump also offered a helping hand.
‘I’ve come here today to offer the hand of American leadership and friendship to any nation in this assembly that is willing to join us in forging a safer, more prosperous world,’ the president said. ‘And it’s a world that we’ll be much happier with, a dramatically better future is within our reach.’
‘But to get there, we must reject the failed approaches of the past and work together to confront some of the greatest threats in history,’ Trump said.
Trump’s MAGA movement has been anti-globalist in nature, with Trump and his ‘America First’ allies arguing that the global ‘elites’ have benefited from trade agreements, which have wiped out American manufacturing jobs.
The more conspiracy-minded members of the MAGA movement, such as adherents to QAnon, believe a global cabal created a sex trafficking ring of minors and that prominent Democratic politicians are involved.
The president and his MAGA allies have also condemned the U.N. for being too anti-Israel.
Ahead of the General Assembly, the State Department yanked a visa for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, and his delegation, on the grounds of national security.
Abbas will appear at the General Assembly in a pre-recorded message virtually.
On Monday, a top ally of the United States, France, was the latest Western nation to back Palestinian statehood, with French President Emmanuel Macron pushing that the two-state solution would pave the way to end the current conflict in Gaza.
Filling the U.S. ambassador’s job at the U.N. also hasn’t been a top priority for the administration.
Trump had originally appointed GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik to serve as his ambassador to the U.N. after the post was previously occupied by former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former U.S. ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft during his first term.
Stefanik criticized ‘antisemitic rot’ growing in the U.N. during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing.
In late March, with a slim majority in the House, Trump pulled Stefanik’s nomination, replacing her in May with his former national security adviser, Michael Waltz, who was ousted from the top National Security Council post after his role in Signalgate.
Waltz took the fall for adding the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a Signal group of top advisers discussing attacks on Houthi rebels.
The Senate finally confirmed Waltz for the U.N. ambassadorship last week – just in time for this week’s General Assembly.
Trump hasn’t had the easiest time in front of the United Nations in past years.
In 2018, he was laughed at when his General Assembly address was braggadocios in nature.
The president proclaimed that ‘in less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.’
He then ad-libbed, ‘So true.’
That got the audience going.
‘Didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s OK,’ Trump answered the laughter.
At a press conference later in the day, the president insisted that the world leaders weren’t laughing with him.
‘They weren’t laughing at me, they were laughing with me. We had fun,’ he told reporters. ‘That was not laughing at me.’
