Secret Service agents are very concerned by the slow response to an incident that occurred at the United Nations on Tuesday, according to a report.
Agents should have moved to protect President Trump and his wife Melania right away after an escalator froze under their feet, sources told reporter Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics.
The delayed reaction from Trump's bodyguards has alarmed Secret Service insiders, who say the incident was a perfect set-up for a would-be assassin.
🚨🚨 Why did the @SecretService allow Pres. Trump and Melania to get stalled on an escalator today at the @UN General Assembly before his speech without moving quickly to protect the leader of the free world and his wife?
The stalled escalator with President Trump and first lady… https://t.co/mFvxGVXDQN
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) September 23, 2025
First Lady Melania Trump briefly lost her footing after the escalator suddenly turned off while she and her husband were on it. Melania was right in front of the president.
“This is not hard. Don’t just stand there,” former agent Rich Staropoli told Crabtree, who added agents "should have closed ranks right around there, as close as you can be.”
“Somebody’s got to make a call. We’re going to stand here like a bunch of morons, like we did in Butler. Or are we going to scoop up the first lady and POTUS and either go down or go up?”
Secret Service agents were similarly slow to get Trump off the stage after he narrowly survived an assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year.
The Secret Service is probing the cause of the escalator issue including the possibility that it was sabotage, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
According to a report in the Sunday Times, UN staffers had "joked" about turning off the escalators to pressure Trump to restore funding to the global institution.
The United Nations has said the escalator stopped after a built-in safety mechanism was inadvertently triggered by someone further up on the escalator.
NOW - Escalator at UN headquarters immediately stops as Trump and Melania step on it shortly after arriving. pic.twitter.com/8nlUkDoQxm
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) September 23, 2025
The escalator incident occurred on the same day that would-be assassin Ryan Routh was convicted for trying to kill Trump at his Florida golf course last September.
Concerns about political violence are also heightened after the assassination of Trump's friend Charlie Kirk by a radical leftist.
Trump made light of the frozen escalator in his speech at the U.N. General Assembly, but Trump struck a more serious tone in a Truth Social post the next day, calling the event part of a "sinister" pattern that needs to be investigated. Trump also cited his teleprompter not working and audio issues during the speech.
“It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first,” Trump posted. “It was only that we were each holding the handrail tightly or, it would have been a disaster.”
“No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do,” he added. “All security tapes at the escalator should be saved, especially the emergency stop button. The Secret Service is involved.”
