It’s safe to say that Donald Trump wasn’t expecting a victory lap during his week at the UN. He and Melania were stranded like a couple trying to leave a Sears mall in 1999 as the escalator first froze in mid-glide. The teleprompter then glitched during his main speech at the United Nations. What’s Trump’s reaction to this? A heated rant accusing the UN of “sabotaging” his moment.
Still, Pete Souza, a former White House photographer for Barack Obama, did not have any of it. Souza hit back on Wednesday with one picture that pierced Donald Trump’s grievance bubble: a 2011 photograph of Obama’s own communications team operating the same teleprompter setup that the current US president was so upset about.
Part of his caption was: “Facts matter.” What MSNBC‘s Jen Psaki described as an “escalator debacle” started Trump’s downfall. At the UN, a motorized staircase came to a standstill as the Trumps stepped on. Most people would have sighed and carried on.
However, Donald Trump got angry and repeatedly mentioned it. As if the UN had secretly plotted to make him look bad, he told world leaders, “All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that (…) stopped (…) and then a teleprompter that didn’t work.” In a fact-check, the UN clarified that a Trump staffer had accidentally pressed the safety button, causing the escalator to stop.
The alleged “sabotage” was an “own team issue.” Psaki said the escalator talk would have been over if Donald Trump had moved on. Instead, it grew into the “Trump rage cycle,” which she describes as a loop of bitterness, escalation, and drama.
Pete Souza has used receipts to mock Trump as practically a side gig. Souza brought up his 2011 photo of Obama giving a typical speech while his own White House Communications Agency employees were using the teleprompter when Trump accused the UN of deliberately causing the problem. Souza clarified that the president’s team (not the UN) is the rightful owner of the devices.
While White House went in circles, arguing otherwise, a UN spokesperson backed that. Souza said that Obama was not exempt from glitches either, and pointing fingers at the UN was a Trumpian distraction.
It was a direct contrast. Obama embraced setbacks as part of the job, while Trump made them into global events. Along with fact-checking Trump, the picture also alerted viewers to how different leaders deal with their share of technical stumbles.
Trump’s fixation on alleged slights has previously overtaken his policies. When he boasted at the United Nations in 2018 that his administration had accomplished “more than almost any administration in (…) history,” he was made fun of. Like the escalator and teleprompter mishap, that event revealed that Donald Trump often complains when the world expects gravity.
According to Psaki, this is part of a pattern where a minor grievance can become far more serious.
From comedian takedowns to media criticism, Donald Trump has used government institutions as weapons over alleged insults. The cycle is always the same: brittle ego –> public outrage –> excessive response. Souza’s photograph summed up the presidency that continues to attack inanimate objects and tries to place the blame outside of its own limits.
