United Nations staff have been accused of sabotaging US President Donald Trump after he was plagued with a series of technical glitches in New York.
On Monday, an escalator at the UN headquarters stopped working the moment the President and the First Lady, Melania Trump, stepped aboard.
Addressing the malfunction, the President said: “If the First Lady wasn’t in great shape, she would’ve fallen but she’s in great shape. We’re both in good shape."
Mr Trump's teleprompter later crashed as he took to the podium at the UN General Assembly, leaving the President to say: “I don’t mind making this speech without a teleprompter, because the teleprompter is not working.
Mr Trump's teleprompter crashed as he took to the podium
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“I feel very happy to be up here with you nevertheless, and that way you speak more from the heart.”
The audience erupted into laughter when Mr Trump quipped: "Whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble."
Towards the end of the speech, the UN audio feed to news channels was switched to a foreign language translation which lead to his words being obscured.
However, speculation has skyrocketed that the malfunctions may have been deliberately planned.
An escalator at the UN headquarters stopped working the moment First Lady Melania Trump stepped onto it
|GETTY
Last week, The Sunday Times revealed that UN staff had been heard "joking" about the various tricks they could pull on Mr Trump as punishment for his administration withholding funds to the global intergovernmental organisation.
One stunt which was being discussed by staff included plans to switch the lifts and escalators off before telling the President that they had no money to fix them, the newspaper reported.
Mr Trump worked the mishaps into his address at the UN, saying: “All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that, on the way up, stopped right in the middle.
“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.
"And by the way, it’s working now. Just went on."
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UN staff had been heard 'joking' about the various tricks they could pull on Mr Trump
|GETTY
Responding to concerns that the malfunctions could have been an inside job, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “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.”
However, a spokesman for the UN later affirmed there was no foul play involved.
He said: “Regarding the escalator, the safety mechanism was inadvertently triggered by someone who was ahead of the president on the escalator.
"The escalator was immediately reset and is in operation.
“Regarding the teleprompter, we have no comment since we don’t operate that teleprompter.
"The interpretation audio was heard when a non-official interpreter pressed the wrong button, which briefly allowed a non-UN interpreter to be heard."
After his speech, the President met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and said that although "he may disagree with it sometimes", he said the US was "behind the United Nations 100 per cent".
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