NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump is demanding an investigation following what he described as a “triple sabotage” during his visit to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, taking to social media to claim that a series of technical mishaps, involving a stopped escalator, a teleprompter failure and audio issues, were deliberate acts meant to undermine him. “A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday — Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday laying out the series of events. During his speech on Tuesday morning in New York, Trump opened by referencing the technical issues, saying, “These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.” The president elaborated further in his social media post, introducing the issue of “completely off” audio. UN Secretary General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement Wednesday evening: “The Secretary-General informed the US Permanent Mission that he had already ordered a thorough investigation, and he conveyed that the UN is ready to cooperate in full transparency with relevant US authorities on this matter to determine what caused the incidents referred to by the United States.” The president’s petty grievances are reflective of his general hostilities towards the international body, whose efficacy he questioned repeatedly this week. “No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do,” Trump said in his post as he criticized the technical problems. “First, the escalator going up to the Main Speaking Floor came to a screeching halt,” he said. “It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first. It was only that we were each holding the handrail tightly or, it would have been a disaster.” “This was absolutely sabotage,” he continued, referencing a report in the London Times over the weekend that said UN staffers had joked about turning off escalators and elevators for Trump’s arrival. “The people that did it should be arrested!” A United Nations spokesperson on Tuesday said that “a built-in safety mechanism” on the escalator was triggered, causing it to stop when President Donald Trump and first lady Melanie Trump attempted to use it. In a lengthy note Tuesday, Dujarric explained that the mechanism may have been triggered by a videographer in the US delegation. Trump then detailed how the teleprompter was initially “stone cold dark” when he went to give his speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday. The administration and the UN have disputed who was responsible for the minor technical snafu, with a UN official saying it was up to the White House to operate president’s prompter while a White House official said it was the UN’s apparatus. While the teleprompter eventually started working, Trump said he was told after his remarks that “the sound was completely off in the Auditorium where the Speech was made, that World Leaders, unless they used the interpreters’ earpieces, couldn’t hear a thing.” Trump said he would be sending a letter to UN leadership as he called for an investigation and the preservation of security tapes from the escalator. He noted that the US Secret Service is involved in the situation. “This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN,” the president said. “They ought to be ashamed of themselves. I’m sending a copy of this letter to the Secretary General, and I demand an immediate investigation.” US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz on Wednesday said the embassy, in support of the Secret Service’s investigation, has sent formal demands to the UN Secretary General António Guterres about the technical difficulties, which he said include interruptions of Trump’s speech with Portuguese interpretation. “The United States will not tolerate threats to our security or dignity at international forums, we expect swift cooperation and decisive action,” the ambassador added in a series of posts on X, mirroring the president’s tone. “These lapses are unacceptable and symptomatic of a broken institution that pose serious safety and security risks.” The demands include the results of a UN internal investigation into the escalator stoppage, “including who or what caused it to halt and whether it was intentional sabotage”; and explanations for the language interpretation and teleprompter issues. The White House also called for a probe Tuesday afternoon, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt raising concerns over whether the incident was intentional in a social media post, saying, “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.” To support her claim, Leavitt shared a screenshot of an article from the British newspaper The Times published two days earlier that stated: “To mark Trump’s arrival, UN staff members have joked that they may turn off the escalators and elevators and simply tell him they ran out of money, so he has to walk up the stairs.” – CNN