‘Disturbing, dangerous failures’: White House blames UN after Trump official assaulted by ‘deranged leftist’ at venue

An official of the US President Donald Trump’s administration was reportedly assaulted at the United Nations headquarters in New York during the UN General Assembly session on Thursday (Sep 25). The official, who was in New York with HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, was followed by a “deranged leftist” into a bathroom. He was allegedly recorded, physically and verbally assaulted at the UN.

“An HHS official was followed into a bathroom, recorded, physically assaulted and verbally accosted by a deranged leftist at the UN who somehow entered the venue past multiple layers of security,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told Fox News.

While the “lunatic” was arrested after the incident and the official was safe, White House blamed the UN for “failure” after they attempted to “sabotage” Trump’s speech.

Kelly said, “Thankfully, the official is safe, and the lunatic was arrested, but this is part of a disturbing and dangerous set of failures by the UN after their sabotage of President Trump ahead of and during his speech.”

Trump’s speech sabotaged at UN?

Earlier on Tuesday (Sep 23), during his speech at the UNGA, Trump complained about “bad escalator” and “bad teleprompter”. He claimed that the only things he received from the UN were a malfunctioning teleprompter and a broken escalator.

“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up, stopped right in the middle,” the US president said.

“If the First Lady wasn’t in great shape, she would have fallen,” Trump said referring to the first lady. “But we’re in great shape, we’re both in good shape, and then the teleprompter didn’t work. These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”

A day later, Trump said that the Secret Service was investigating what he described as “sabotage” at the United Nations, claiming that the an escalator malfunction, a teleprompter failure and sound problems disrupted his appearance.

“A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday — Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!" Trump wrote in a Wednesday Truth Social post. “This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN. They ought to be ashamed of themselves... No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do.”

However, the UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that it was possibly a videographer from the US delegation who accidentally brought the escalator to a halt.

“A subsequent investigation, including a readout of the machine's central processing unit, indicated that the escalator had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator,” where the videographer was standing to film the US president’s arrival, he said, according to NPR.

The UN has also said that the US delegation was responsible for operating Trump’s teleprompter. However, White House told the outlet that its staffers were “prevented by UN staff” from setting up the teleprompter ahead of the US president’s speech. It added that the staff was left “trying to set the teleprompter up as the President was speaking.”