President Trump visited the United Nations building in New York on Tuesday, where he delivered pointed remarks highlighting areas of U.N. weakness, while balancing those comments with his belief that the UN has “potential” if the right people were in charge.
Unfortunately for the U.N., the president’s remarks to the General Assembly were marred by technical problems – issues that President Trump made light of, but also roundly criticized.
In one video captured and posted online, President Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, stepped onto an escalator in the U.N. building. As soon as the First Couple stepped on, the escalator immediately stopped working.
When President Trump took the podium to deliver his remarks to the General Assembly later, the teleprompter stopped working.
The president joked, “Whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.”
Despite the technical malfunction, President Trump delivered a nearly hour-long speech, criticizing the UN for its failure to work at achieving global peace, for their decision to fund illegal immigration into the United States, and for their poor “global warming” predictions that have failed to come true.
“I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never even received a phone call from the United Nations offering to help in finalizing the deal,” President Trump said.
He continued, “All I got from the United Nations was an escalator, that, on the way up, stopped in the middle. If the First Lady wasn’t in great shape, she would have fallen…and then a teleprompter that didn’t work. These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter. Thank you very much.”
Later, while speaking to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, President Trump said, “It’s always an honor to be here. We’ve done this before, and this was a little more exciting because of the escalator, [and] the teleprompter. But these things happen, but I will tell you, your people have treated us with great respect.”
The president said he thought the “potential” of the UN to end wars and be useful on the global stage was “tremendous.”
“It’s all about the people,” President Trump said. “You can have a wonderful concept, but if you don’t have the people…the UN has never lived up to its potential.”