The Secret Service is investigating allegations that President Trump was deliberately sabotaged by United Nations staff during his visit to the body’s headquarters on Tuesday, the White House has said.
The investigation comes after The Sunday Times reported that UN workers joked about turning off an escalator before the general assembly meeting. On Tuesday, an escalator broke down as Melania Trump, the first lady, stepped onto it.
It was one of several glitches that raised suspicions about whether Trump was targeted by people inside the institution he has so strongly criticised.
When Trump got to the podium to hold his speech to the general assembly, the teleprompter was not working — although service was later restored — while the main UN audio feed to TV news channels switched over to a foreign language translation towards the end of his speech, obscuring some of his words.
Karoline Leavitt, the president’s press secretary, told Fox News on Tuesday night: “I put out a statement earlier when there was concerning reporting over the weekend from the London Times, as you pointed out, that UN globalist staffers were basically plotting to set up the president of the United States.
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“And first it was the escalator, then it was