Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleSept. 23, 2025, 10:45 PM EDTBy Abigail WilliamsThe 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.U.N. secretary general spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a note to reporters that a technician found it was the White House videographer who was unintentionally behind the now-international incident that was caught on video.“The escalator had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator,” Dujarric said. “The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing. The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function described above.”But the escalator wasn’t the only thing that malfunctioned for Trump during his visit to the U.N.“I don’t mind making this speech without a teleprompter, because the teleprompter is not working,” Trump said soon after he took the podium to address all 193 delegations from around the globe.“There are two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,” he said.A U.N. official told NBC News that the White House was responsible for operating Trump’s teleprompter.The Associated Press first reported the U.N.’s findings on the two incidents.Trump appeared good-natured about all of it.“The teleprompter was broken and the escalator came to a sudden hault as we were ridding up to the podium, but both of those events probably made the speech more interesting than it would have been other wise,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It is always an honor to speak at the United Nations, even if, their equipment is somewhat faulty.”His press secretary, however, viewed things much differently.“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,” Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.Hours later, on Fox News, Leavitt suggested U.N. staffers may have sought to injure Trump and indicated the issue was far from resolved.”When you put all of this together, it doesn’t look like a coincidence to me,” she told host Jesse Watters.”I know that we have people, including the United States Secret Service, who are looking into this to try to get to the bottom of it,” Leavitt added. “And if we find that these were U.N. staffers who were purposely trying to trip up — literally trip up — the president and the first lady of the United States, well, there better be accountability for those people, and I will personally see to it.”Abigail WilliamsAbigail Williams is a producer and reporter for NBC News covering the State Department.Tara Prindiville contributed.