On the world’s biggest diplomatic stage, the President of the United States was momentarily foiled by a stopped escalator and a broken teleprompter. He immediately seized upon the mishaps to portray the United Nations as a symbol of global dysfunction. But the strange and revealing truth behind these minor technical glitches tells a much deeper story about this administration’s relationship with facts, institutions, and the power of the presidential pulpit.
The incident is more than just a comical series of gaffes. It is a perfect, almost too-perfect, microcosm of a particular style of constitutional governance – one that creates a problem and then loudly decries the existence of that problem to undermine an institution it opposes.
A Narrative of Incompetence
The President’s narrative was simple and effective. Upon arriving to give his address to the U.N. General Assembly, the escalator carrying him up to the chamber ground to a halt. Later, as he began his speech, the teleprompter failed.
He masterfully used these moments to his advantage, joking that whoever ran the teleprompter “is in big trouble” and using the incidents to paint a picture of a feckless and incompetent organization. For a global audience, the message was clear: the United Nations can’t even manage basic logistics.
A Constitutional Lesson in the “Bully Pulpit”
This is where the story becomes a crucial constitutional lesson. The President’s annual speech at the U.N. is the ultimate expression of his power as our Head of State. The entire world is listening, giving his words immense weight and influence. This platform is what Theodore Roosevelt famously called the “bully pulpit.”
In this case, the President used this powerful constitutional platform to craft a narrative of incompetence based on what turned out to be completely misleading information, a deeply cynical use of one of his most potent powers.
The Sobering, Self-Inflicted Reality
The official explanation for the mishaps, provided by U.N. officials, fundamentally rewrites the President’s narrative.
- The Escalator: According to a U.N. spokesman, a U.S. delegation videographer, running ahead of the President, inadvertently triggered the emergency stop mechanism at the top of the escalator.
- The Teleprompter: A U.N. official confirmed that the White House, not the United Nations, was operating the teleprompter for the President’s speech.
The President was publicly mocking an organization for failures that were, in fact, caused by his own team. This is a profound example of a political narrative becoming completely divorced from observable reality.
The final, and perhaps greatest, irony is that while these specific incidents were self-inflicted, the United Nations is facing real financial and operational challenges. That “liquidity crisis,” as the U.N. calls it, is due in no small part to delays in funding from the United States – a matter controlled by Congress and the President.
This is a story about more than just a broken escalator. It is a perfect metaphor for a style of governance that starves an institution of resources, has its own team inadvertently break the machinery, and then uses its most powerful public platform to mock that institution for being broken.